Truman Lake is known for great crappie fishing across the entire reservoir. There are plenty of quality eaters and even numerous fish in the 2 pound range to be found. Tournament anglers have been producing 13 to 14 pound weights pretty routinely on a total of 7 fish here in the last several years. Two of the most successful anglers have been the father/son team of Larry and Dalton Gorham. Even with their amazing skills at finding the big ones, even they didn’t expect to catch a fish like what they caught on Sunday, March 26th. In all reality, it’s quite possibly the new unofficial Truman Lake record crappie weighing 3.83 pounds.
Dalton and his dad, Larry, were in the Grand arm doing some fun fishing Sunday morning as they often do, usually in preparation for upcoming crappie tournaments.
“I dropped down on it like a normal fish and it was sitting real high in the water column,” Dalton said. “I didn’t treat it any differently and it immediately bit.”
Then, pandemonium in the boat. The fish had been sitting out in the water only 2 feet under the surface so it didn’t take long to get it to the top.
“As I was watching the screen, I never really got to see how big it actually was,” Dalton said. “But when it came to the surface, I started screaming ‘Giant!’ ‘Giant!’ ‘Giant!!”
Of course, the Gorhams had decided to leave a net behind on this trip, so the elder Gorham sprang into action, scooping the fish up with both his arms plunged halfway into the water. He and Dalton couldn’t believe what they were looking at.
“I was just kind of freaking out yelling like a little kid when the fish came in the boat,” Dalton recounted.
After taking a few minutes to let their heart rates settle, they pulled the fish out of the livewell to take some weight and length measurements. The scale showed 3.83 pounds and they weighed it multiple times because they couldn’t believe what they were seeing. The fish also measured a touch over 18 inches long.
The giant crappie fell for a Rod Knocker jig on an 1/8th oz head in a silver/chartreuse color pattern and was caught at about 10am. It was only in 5 feet of water sitting 2 feet down. The pair boated several more 2 pound fish and others in the 1.80 range. Overall, a fantastic day of fishing with a once-in-a-lifetime crappie that both father and son won’t soon forget.
There’s been some 3 pounders caught in the past on Truman, including a 3.68 in recent years. While they could have brought this one in to weigh on more official scales, the Gorhams decided to let the fish go right where they caught it, hopefully to be found again by another lucky angler.
“You can bet we’ll be looking for that one again on our next tournament day, that’s for sure,” Dalton joked.
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