On Aug. 8 West Virginia angler Lindell Marker broke the state’s black crappie record while fishing a lake with his friend Dwight Priestley. Marker wouldn’t hold that record for long, though. Because a little more than an hour later, Priestley pulled an even bigger crappie out of the lake that replaced Marker’s shortly-held record.
The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources highlighted the extraordinary double in a Thursday press release that names Priestley as the new state-record-holder in both the length and weight divisions for black crappies. (Like many other states, West Virginia recognizes two types of fishing records for each species: one based on inches and the other on pounds.)
And although we couldn’t verify this with the WVDNR, it’s possible that Marker’s incredibly brief reign at the top of the record book is an unofficial record on its own. We’ve covered anglers breaking their own fishing records, and we’ve seen plenty of records fall in short order. But 1 hour and 15 minutes? That’s unprecedented, in the words of West Virginia governor Jim Justice.
“I’m thrilled to celebrate this unprecedented fishing achievement,” Justice said in the press release, “and hope these new benchmarks inspire anglers from all over to come and explore West Virginia’s world-class fishing opportunities.”
The WVDNR explains that Marker and Priestley were fishing together on Woodrum Lake when they caught their two record-breaking black crappies. The two anglers used live minnows for bait and they were fishing out of Marker’s boat.
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Marker caught his fish around 7:30 a.m. It weighed 2.85 pounds and measured 17.36 inches long, which surpassed the standing length record and tied the standing weight record — both of which were held by Craig Webb, who caught his state-record crappie from the same lake in June. Webb’s fish was also the first-ever black crappie record certified in West Virginia. (The DNR just started accepting records for the species in January, which helps explain why so many records have been submitted this year.)
Priestley then one-upped his fishing buddy around 8:45 a.m., when he landed a black crappie that weighed 3.15 pounds and measured 17.76 inches. Both the weight and length records for Priestley’s fish were certified by WVDNR fisheries biologist Cory Hartman.
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