 this year, and every now and then we hear that, but one guy actually measured one and told me about it. It was 12 inches long. That's a big crappie. If you're going to catch crappie, you should keep them and you should put them in your garden for fertilizer and you should eat them because it's the best food that you can catch real easy. You fill up a bucket of crappie, but use an electric fillet knife.