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Updated Thursday, August 26
While it’s always fun to report state records being broken, there’s a special place among the staff here at Premier Angler when that record is a crappie…
For Roy Isaac, a 62-year-old angler out of Albany, New York, his catch on August 21st will ultimately stand as one of the most impressive crappie catches of the entire year.
Fishing on Sleepy Hollow Lake, Isaac landed an enormous 4.42 pound crappie. Word of his catch began circulating across the internet and was reported in Field & Stream, among other sources, within 48 hours.
While the record has not been officially confirmed by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, the fish will definitely break either the record for black crappie or white crappie assuming all testing shows that the fish was caught legally. Testing will also show which particular species the fish is.
Currently, New York’s black crappie state record sits at 4 pounds, 1 ounces and 18.5 inches in length. That fish was caught on Lake Flavia by William Wightman on a black Maribou jig in May 2018.
New York’s white crappie state record, however, currently sits as a tie. James Weinberg caught a 3 pound, 13 ounce white crappie on a jig back in 2001 while fishing Sleepy Hollow Lake – the same lake where Isaac caught his recent mammoth.
The co-holder of the white crappie record, Richard Otty, caught his 3 pound, 13 ouncer on an emerald shiner while fishing Kinderhook Lake in 2013.
Either way, Isaac’s catch will surpass those records by a comfortable margin.
According to the Field & Stream interview, Isaac caught his pending record while fishing 4 pound test and using an ultralight panfish rod and reel combo.
Update: We can now confirm that Isaac’s catch has been certified as the official New York state record white crappie.
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