Kansas DFW goes to anglers home and seize potential state record crappie

[fishinwrench]

14 minutes ago, aarchdale@coresleep.com said:

I've fished a lot of tournaments and never have seen one at a weigh in come to think of it

Me either......But wouldn't ya think?....... Especially when all these out-of-state folks show up just for ONE event.  

One of the MLF pro's got DQed recently for not having a fishing license.  Ron Shearers boy I think.    Woopsie !   😅

[tjm]

Pros don't have to follow other regs like possession and culling of game fish why would they need a license? The fee the tourney pays should cover all that for participants.

[tjm]

9 hours ago, tjm said:

would a fish frozen for a month still weigh what it did when fresh? I'd think there'd be loss of water weight?

Some online searching indicates up to 2.5% (possibly more in a home freezer due to time element) weight loss to dehydration when freezing fresh caught fish. 2% weight loss would put that 4.07 pounds down to 3.99# and 2.5% would reduce it to 3.97# either below the 4.02# of the previous record.

Using calculations for weight-  18" L & 14" G - LxGxG/800= 4.41# (fat fish) or LxGxG/900=3.92# (thin fish)  So the fish should be in the ~4# neighborhood.

It probably was a record breaker when caught but 45 days in the freezer would have changed that. I'm thinking someone in KDWP had some reason to keep the old record in place and counted on dehydration to make the report look falsified. Why else wait over 6 weeks to examine the fish?

[Quillback]

5 hours ago, tjm said:

Some online searching indicates up to 2.5% (possibly more in a home freezer due to time element) weight loss to dehydration when freezing fresh caught fish. 2% weight loss would put that 4.07 pounds down to 3.99# and 2.5% would reduce it to 3.97# either below the 4.02# of the previous record.

Using calculations for weight-  18" L & 14" G - LxGxG/800= 4.41# (fat fish) or LxGxG/900=3.92# (thin fish)  So the fish should be in the ~4# neighborhood.

It probably was a record breaker when caught but 45 days in the freezer would have changed that. I'm thinking someone in KDWP had some reason to keep the old record in place and counted on dehydration to make the report look falsified. Why else wait over 6 weeks to examine the fish?

The old record was half an inch shorter, but only .05 of a lb. less than the new not a record.  

[FishnDave]

Maybe it doesn't count because they determined its a Black Crappie x White Crappie hybrid? 

[luckycraft]

If it really does come down to “paper work” where there was an error and this really was a record, then I feel bad for this guy.  
 

 

[Johnsfolly]

On 2/3/2024 at 9:55 PM, fishinwrench said:

So a sick, diseased, and dying deer can still grow a thick healthy looking set of antlers like that?      

That seems kinda odd, and contradicts what other biologists have said.  "Dry crusty noses, spongy hoofs, spindly antlers".    I know I've heard/read that before.    Guess it depends on which biologist you're listening to. 🙄 

Are these symptoms indicative of chronic wasting disease or epizootic hemorrhagic disease? I've seen the following for EHD/HD:

Clinical Signs: Deer infected with HD typically exhibit symptoms approximately 7 days after infection. These signs include fever, edema, and swelling of the head, neck, tongue, or eyelids. Reduced appetite, weakness, and loss of fear of humans are also common. Unfortunately, deer often die quickly within 8 to 36 hours of showing symptoms. 

It seems that if they get EHD that death occurs quickly which would mean that a buck could grow a full set of antlers and then get the disease and die.

We found this buck at my work in Columbia. It was acting like it was sick the night before. It was not concerned that we were within 30 yards of it. It kept licking its nose. Found it dead the next morning. When we gutted the deer, the lungs were destroyed. The rib cage was in perfect condition. No bruising of the meat around the ribs. So there was no evidence that it had been shot or injured by a car or another buck. All we could figure was EHD killed this buck.

[tjm]

5 hours ago, Quillback said:

The old record was half an inch shorter, but only .05 of a lb. less than the new not a record.  

Weight/length of an individual fish must  vary somewhat with time of year,  abundance of forage, prespawn, postspawn etc.? I've caught fish of about equal length and depth that varied a lot in thickness and therefore weight.  Both those fish would be very large for the species and .8oz could be the difference of a single meal.

The article is rather vague, but it seems that KDWP issued a statement in Mar. that  the fish was a new record, one would presume that they had seen enough evidence at that time to make such a determination. I would think a KDWP agent had seen and measured the fish or it had been weighed on a certified scale, etc. And the reason for confiscation is so unclear/unexplained as to be "because we can".  A lot of stuff that we can only guess at, but it seems fishy.

[Ryan Miloshewski]

Well there ya go 

https://www.outdoorlife.com/fishing/disqualified-kansas-record-crappie-stuffed-with-ball-bearings/

[ness]

I had a feeling there was gonna be more to the story than overzealous KDWP agents.