In an unexpected turn of events, the new Kansas state record crappie was nullified after steel ball bearings were found stuffed inside the fish.
I covered the controversial story of this record crappie last month and am now publishing this follow-up article.
Keep reading to get all the details on this most interesting and shocking of fishing stories!
The Back Story
It was on March 5, 2023, that Topeka resident Bobby Parkhurst was fishing at Pottawatomie State Fishing Lake No. 2 when a huge crappie took his minnow.
Shortly after, the fish had been weighed and verified, and a state record application had been sent to the KDWP.
The official report stated that “after inspection and measurement by John Reinke, assistant director of Fisheries for the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, Bobby’s catch was weighed on a certified scale, where it was recorded as weighing 4.07 pounds.”
“As fisheries biologists, we get the chance to see a lot of big fish, but this one is certainly for the books,” said Reinke. “This crappie measured in at 18 inches long and 14 inches in girth, so it truly deserves a spot on the state record list.”
A few weeks later, on March 30, 2023, the KDWP had officially certified the catch as the new Kansas state record for white crappie.
A Second Examination of the Record Catch
On April 20, 2023, a few weeks after Bobby’s record had been certified, game wardens came to the angler’s home and seized the frozen fish.
According to the KDWP’s Chief of Public Affairs & Engagement Officer, whom I had contacted earlier today, “the KDWP had received a tip from an eyewitness that the fish had first been weighed at a second location and weighed only 3.73 pounds at that time. To preserve the integrity of KDWP’s state record program, KDWP Game Wardens met with the angler who voluntarily presented his fish for re-examination.”
After that, things went quiet for a long time, until November 14, 2023, when the KDWP updated its official report, stating that:
“Upon further review by KDWP officials, the crappie caught by Parkhurst could not be confirmed; therefore, the previous record for Kansas’ largest crappie still stands (Miller, 1964).”
But it would take another few months before the full story finally came to light!
KSNT 27 News interview, the KDWP stated that there had been no error in the verification process. Instead, the information supplied via the record application was not true and correct.
The Department’s spokesperson then added that the issue was with the listed weight on the form and that it had not been filled out accurately by the angler.
A Metal Detector Did the Trick
In a KSNT 27 News interview, the KDWP stated that there had been no error in the verification process.
Instead, the information supplied via the record application was not true and correct.
The Department’s spokesperson then added that the issue was with the listed weight on the form and that it had not been filled out accurately by the angler.
In her Email to me, the Department’s Chief of Public Affairs & Engagement Officer further explained that, “when staff used a handheld metal detector to scan the fish, the device detected the presence of metal.
Wardens then took the fish to the Topeka Zoo for an x-ray examination, where it was revealed that two steel ball bearings were inside the crappie.
As a result, the Department later nullified the angler’s catch as a state record, reinstated the previous state record (Miller, 1964), and has since made the fish available for return to the angler.”
A Shameful and Unnecessary Act
I must admit that when I first covered the story and talked to the angler himself, I was also skeptical of the KDWP’s decisions and explanations!
Mostly because the whole thing took so many months, I guess.
Now that the whole story has been revealed, however, I am pretty upset at this, being an avid angler myself.
To be fair, it is yet to be determined how the steel ball bearings ended up inside the fish or who tipped off the wardens about the case!
But this thing sounds too much like the story about the two guys who cheated during the Lake Erie Walleye Trail Fishing Tournament last September.
Remember those guys? They had actually stuffed their walleyes with lead weights!
Those anglers actually got jail time for that! And rightly so if you ask me.
I don’t know if there will be any consequences for the Topeka angler this story is about, but no matter if he will be held accountable or not, this is a terrible, shameful, and stupid thing to do!
Even though this story was kind of upsetting, I hope you’ve enjoyed the read nonetheless.
I wish you a great weekend and tight lines out there! (And don’t ever cheat, it’s not worth it!)
All images courtesy of KDPW
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