The afternoon of Dec. 12 was a chilly one. In those mid-30-degree temperatures, Derek Merricks and his pal Ben Boudaoud launched their 17-foot Tracker boat into Lake Chesdin. The 3,100-acre reservoir south of Richmond, Virginia, offers good fishing for a variety of species.
“We got started late that afternoon and were really going for catfish after nightfall,” Merricks, a Richmond resident, told Wired2fish. “But we decided to fish for crappies before dark, and using forward-facing sonar we started looking for fish in about 25 feet of water.”
The Big One Bites
The anglers caught some small crappies between 10 and 12 inches. Then Merricks spotted a good-sized one suspended a few feet off bottom. On his second cast to the fish with a 1/16-ounce orange jig tipped with a live minnow, the deep fish spotted Merricks’ lure and hit it.
He set the hook using a light seven-foot St. Croix spinning rod holding a Shimano Stradic 2500 reel spooled with eight-pound test fluorocarbon line.
“The water was cold in the 40s and I got the fish up to the boat pretty quick,” said the 39-year-old angler who works in commercial real estate development. “But I knew it was a heavy fish. Ben netted it, and I was shocked when I realized it was a heck of black crappie.”
An Accomplished Angler
Merricks is an experienced record seeker of Virginia fish. He’s caught 25 of the 30 fish species in the state’s “Angler Recognition Program.”
And he’s also caught seven International Game Fish Association (IGFA) world records.
Because of Merricks’ experience with IGFA records, when he’s fishing, he always carries an official IGFA-certified measuring board. Such a board is required by IGFA for anglers wanting to submit record-length fish for record status.
“I’d caught three IGFA black crappie length records in the past, and thought the one I caught that day might be big enough to get the record back,” said Merricks.
He measured the length of the black crappie to the fork of the tail, which is required by IGFA. The fish measured 44 centimeters, or 17.32 inches. Merricks got some photos of the crappie on the IGFA measuring board and filled out all IGFA applications for a world catch-and-release black crappie.
Then he released the fish back into Lake Chesdin, as required by IGFA rules for that record category.
“The fish weighed 3.5 pounds, and swam off perfectly healthy after I released it,” said Merricks.
Reclaiming a Record
IGFA recently approved Merricks’ catch as a “tie” for catch-and-release status as a world record length black crappie. His fish ties another 17.32-inch black crappie, which Art Weston caught in Rice County Lake, Minnesota, last April.
Merricks also holds an IGFA length record for yellow perch taken with a fly rod, which he caught from Virginiana’s Little Creek Reservoir last year.
“My six-year-old son Bennett has tied the junior IGFA length record for yellow perch, and he has a pending world record for white perch,” Merricks said with pride. “We’re just coming into the fishing season in Virginia, and Bennett is targeting some more records.
“My other four-year-old son is coming on, too, and he’ll be looking to catch some record fish soon.”
