The product recommendations on our site are independently chosen by our editors. When you click through our links, we may earn a commission. Thanks for helping us do what we love.

Home Record Fish News Tenn. State Record is World Record Black Crappie

Tenn. State Record is World Record Black Crappie

Jason Sealock
Nov 02, 2018

Update Oct 31, 2018: On Oct. 10, 2018 the IGFA certified Lionel “Jam” Ferguson’s catch as the new world record black crappie.

Original Story posted May 16, 2018:Fishing on a local pond in Paint Rock, Tenn. late on the evening of May 15, 2018, angler Jam Ferguson landed the fish of a lifetime when he caught a 5-pound, 7-ounce black crappie. The fish was weighed on TN Toad Scales that night, and the scales were later certified and the fish reweighed on May 16, 2018 by TWRA officials. If it passes a DNA test, and will be the official new Tennessee state record black crappie, eclipsing the former record of 4 pounds, 4 ounces set back in 1985.

If the catch and DNA results are certified by the IGFA, it should be the new World Record for black crappie as well, besting the current record of 5 pounds caught out of a private lake in Missouri in 2006.

Ferguson reportedly caught the fish on a Triple Threat John Deere colored grub. What a fish. Congrats to Jam on this amazing crappie. I imagine there are a lot of crappie anglers looking up ponds in Paint Rock, Tenn. tonight. We will update with more details and hope to talk to Jam Ferguson soon.

More pictures here:

Giant mouth and bone structure on this fish

Jam Ferguson is all smiles after catching this once in a lifetime fish

Jam Ferguson poses with his fish after TWRA officials certified its weight

Getting the official weight on the new TN State Record crappie

igfa-certifies-black-crappie

Lionel “Jam” Ferguson’s catch was certified as the new World Record for black crappie on October 10, 2018 by the IGFA.

Jason Sealock

Currently working as Senior Advisor to Wired2fish. Former COO and Publisher, Jason Sealock came to Wired2fish shortly after inception in January of 2010. Prior to that he was the Editor-in-Chief of FLW Outdoors Magazines. He worked up from Associate Editor to Photo Editor and finally Editor in Chief of three magazines FLW Bass, FLW Walleye and FLW Saltwater. Now he sets the content direction for Wired2fish while also working directly with programmers, consultants and industry partners. Sealock has been an avid angler for the better part of 40 years and has been writing and shooting fishing and outdoors content for more than 25 years. He is an expert with fishing electronics and technologies and an accomplished angler, photographer, writer and editor. He has taught a lot of people to find fish with their electronics and has been instrumental in teaching these technologies to the masses. He's also the industry authority on new fishing tackle and has personally reviewed more than 10,000 products in his tenure. He has a 30-year background in information technologies and was a certified engineer for a time in Microsoft, Novell, Cisco, and HP. He mostly fishes for bass and panfish around the house. He has, however, caught fish in 42 of the 50 states in the US as well as Costa Rica, Mexico, and Canada and hopes to soon add Finland, Japan, Africa and Australia to his list.

Previous Next