Is there a new record slab in Colorado? That could be the case after Eric Allee, a content/marketing guru at Eagle Claw and a pure fishing fanatic, landed this nearly four-pound black crappie while fishing from a kayak last month in the Centennial State. At 3 pounds, 15 ounces and 18.25 inches in length, Allee’s slab is bigger than both the weight and the catch-and-release records maintained on the Colorado Parks & Wildlife website. (Photo courtesy of Eric Allee/Eagle Claw)
January 11, 2024
By Game & Fish Staff
Record Kayak Crappie in Colorado? Not long before Christmas, avid angler Eric Allee, the content and marketing coordinator for the Denver-based Eagle Claw Fishing Tackle Co ., loaded up his own personal sleigh—in this case, a Hobie kayak—and went fishing.
And what a gift he got in a month (December) and in a place (Colorado) that not everyone thinks of when they think of record-sized slab crappie.
At a reported 3 pounds, 15 ounces and 18.25 inches long, Allee’s black crappie seems poised to break the Colorado state record in both the weight and the catch-and-release length categories. No word on the slab crappie’s certification just yet from the Colorado Parks & Wildlife , but we'll keep you posted.
For the record, the current Colortado weight record is a 3.48-pounder pulled from the Frank State Wildlife Area by angler Fesstus Stalder , a story that we reported on shortly after Stalder caught that fish on June 11, 2017 . Meanwhile, the length record maintained by CPW is a 16.25-inch specimen caught last year by Kyle Musich at James M. Robb Colorado River State Park.—Lynn Burkhead
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Record Ends Fishing Trip in 15 Minutes Anthony Rozniak of St. Peters caught this 3-pound skipjack herring from the Missouri River. The fish ties with two previous state records under pole-and-line. (Photo couyrtesy of Missouri Department of Conservation) Missouri angler Anthony Rozniak of said the state-record-tying skipjack herring he caught on Dec. 6 bit the hook less than 15 minutes after he and his brother arrived to fish at the Missouri River.
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"My brother and I headed out to catfish that day," Rozniak said in a new release from the Missouri Department of Conservation. "We threw some jigs out to see what was there and the first fish I hooked into was a one-and-a-half pound skipjack. The very next cast was double that size. We had only been out fishing for 15 minutes by the time I caught it. I looked at my brother and said, ‘I hate to cancel our fishing trip, but we got a state record! We got to go!’”
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The 3.0-pound herring tied the record shared by two other anglers.
Rozniak plans to have the fish mounted for his upcoming birthday.
Yellow Perch Record in Missouri Jeffrey Needles of Lake Lotawana is the first Missouri fishing-record holder of 2024 after catching a 12-ounce yellow perch. Needles was fishing with his family Jan. 3 when he caught the fish at Lake Lotawana using a throwline. (Photo courtesy of Missouri Department of Conservation) Jeffrey Needles of Lake Lotawana recently set an alternative-methods state record for yellow perch in Missouri with a 12-ounce fish caught on a throw line on Jan. 3. The fish was weighed on a certified scale and released alive.
"I do weekly fishing tournaments with my buddies, and a lot of guys say record perch is in that lake," Needles said in a Missouri Department of Conservation new release. “I have friends trying to break the record for pole-and-line, so for me to get the alternative records method is fun. And having my kids there for that moment made it even more special."
It’s the first fishing record of 2024 in the Show Me State.
