Anthony Mondo caught a giant crappie while competing in a bass tournament on Lake Chickamauga in Tennessee. Photo courtesy of Anthony Mondo.
In the world of sport fishing, fame often comes calling at the most unexpected time.
That’s Anthony Mondo’s story. In late February, he competed in a buddy bass tournament on Tennessee’s Lake Chickamauga. He was looking for one big bite, and he got it.
An Unintended Catch
It wasn’t the big largemouth he hoped to catch, though. Instead, it was a four-pound crappie — the biggest of its kind caught in recent years.
“I’m strictly a bass fisherman. I don’t even fish for crappies,” Mondo told Wired2fish. “Then I catch a fish like this.
“Go figure.”
Mondo didn’t even realize the significance of his catch until his partner Conner Plass laid eyes on what Mondo had on the end of his line.
“He’s a crappie fisherman, too, and he just went crazy,” said Mondo, who lives in Harrison, Tennessee. “He said he had never seen a crappie that big.”
The Talk of the Tournament
Mondo plunked the crappie into the livewell, and he and Plass continued fishing in the bass tournament. They finished second in the event, but they had perhaps the most talked-about catch of the day.
“The word got out, and some crappie fishermen from miles away came to get a look at that fish,” Mondo said.
Mondo kept the fish alive and later had it weighed on certified scales at a local meat market. The fish registered 3.99 pounds, though it probably lost a fraction of weight from the time it swam in the livewell until Mondo was able to get it weighed.
The crappie was 19 inches long and had a girth of 15.5 inches. Mondo babysat the fish for a while before releasing it, making sure it didn’t turn belly up and float to the surface.
How it Happened
Mondo caught the crappie when he downsized his baits while fishing for bass.
“The bass were picky in that cold water, and they wanted something smaller than what we were using,” Mondo explained. “So I went to a small (Rapala) Mooch Minnow, and that’s what worked.”
Mondo was using LiveScope, the electronic device showing real-time fish activity, when he spotted a big mark he assumed was a bass. The fish was six feet down in 30 feet of water, just cruising, Mondo said. “It was probably just sunbathing in that cold water,” he said.
He used spinning gear to cast his bait past the fish, then let it swing down. And slowly retrieved it with a jigging motion.
“That crappie followed it all the way to the boat before it hit,” Mondo said.
Not a Record, But Still Impressive
At first, Mondo thought he had a decent-sized bass. “She really fought hard,” he said. “She had some great headshakes and she took some line.”
Despite the fish’s impressive size, it fell far short of being a Tennessee state record black crappie. The current record weighed 5 pounds, 7 ounces, which the International Game Fish Association also recognized as a world record. That fish was caught in a private pond.
Mondo’s catch surprised fisheries managers with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA).
“Chickamauga has an excellent crappie fishery for both quality and quantity,” Mike Jolley, a regional fisheries manager for the TWRA, told Wired2fish. “However, a four-pounder is certainly unique there or in any other Tennessee reservoir.
“We don’t see them that size in our scientific surveys.”
But with consistent natural reproduction and a large forage base (mostly shad), a few individuals could survive long enough to reach impressive sizes.
“I would put the age of a fish this size at seven to 10 years,” Jolley noted.
