You have to love the honesty of Romulus Smith.
When I asked how he caught his 2-pound, 4-ounce crappie at Maple Lake on Sunday, he said, ``Pure luck.
Lucky or not, the thick, big-girthed 15 1/4-inch crappie was weighed on the certified scale at Henry's at 2-4. He was fishing with his boys, Jaiden Harris, 9, and Percy Dockery, 12.
As much for the story as anything, the crappie earns Fish of the Week honors.
FOTW tops the Midwest Fishing Report in the Sun-Times each Wednesday. An extended online version is usually posted here by midnight Tuesday.
Here's Smith's tale:
``We cast out slip bobbers and covered the area we were in,'' the 29-year-old stock clerk from Chicago said.
He turned to talk to a friend, when he turned back the bobber was gone. All in less than 30 seconds.
it was his biggest crappie.
``It is not good enough,'' Smith said. ``I am after that state record.''
That won't be easy since all three crappie records in Illinois top 4 pounds.
John Hampton caught the black crappie record (4-8) from Rend Lake on May 15, 1976. Kevin Dennis caught the white crappie record (4-7) from a Morgan County farm pond on April 8, 1973. Marcus Miller caught the record hybrid (4.52) on May 14, 2008 from a Jefferson County farm pound.
Anybody catches one of those, I would love to know about it.
E-mail FOTW nominations to outdoordb@sbcglobal.net.
Leave a comment