Earlier this month, we reported on a case involving a state-record crappie that game wardens seized from an angler near Topeka, Kansas. According to the Kansas Department of Wildlife & Parks (KDWP), that record was revoked due to inaccurate information about the fish’s weight. This morning, a KDWP spokesperson shed more light on the controversial case, telling Field & Stream that the fish had ball bearings inside its body cavity when it was weighed for the record books on a certified scale last spring.
The agency declared Bobby Parkhurst’s 4-plus-pound crappie a new state record on April 4, 2023, calling it “a once-in-a-lifetime fish.” At the time, they believed that the panfish had just dethroned a 60-year-old record. But a few days later, an anonymous tipster told KDWP that the fish’s weight was a farce.
“[We] 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,” KDWP communications officer Nadia Marji told F&S in an email. “When staff used a handheld metal detector to scan the fish, the device detected the presence of metal.”