Earlier this month Wide Open Spaces reported on a fishy situation in Kansas: The state declared a new state record white crappie, before authorities seized the fish and stripped the record without an explanation. But now we have an answer: an investigation has revealed that the crappie was stuffed with metal balls, which inauthentically increased the fish's weight.
The situation dates back to last Spring when Kansas resident Bobby Parkhurst caught an admittedly big, but not naturally record-breaking, white crappie while fishing a pond in Pottawatomie County. Parkhurst brought the crappie to a local bait shop to be weighed, but it didn't break any state records, according to a Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks statement. It was at this point that Parkhurst could have accepted defeat—but chose instead to cram ball bearings into the fish's body cavity and then go to a second bait shop for a weigh-in. This time, the fish scored a weight of 4.07 pounds, heavier than the previous state record of 4.02, which had been held since 1964.
Parkhurst submitted the crappie to the KDWP, which then inspected the fish and confirmed its weight before declaring it the new Kansas state record white crappie. Five days after the announcement was made, however, a tip triggered an investigation. KDWP received a tip from an eyewitness that said the fish had first been weighed at a different location and weighed only 3.73 pounds at that time, KDWP communications officer Nadia Marji said.
"If it was a state record, I would have taken a picture of it," the bait shop owner who originally weighed Parkhurst's fish said. "Typically when that happens, I have to fill out paperwork, measure the fish and check the weight, and I actually have to give the [angler] the serial number off my scale. That was not done on this fish."
Bobby Parkhurst Photo
KDWP first inspected the two certified scales at the bait shops where Parkhurst brought his fish to be weighed, before the investigation led officers went to Parkhurst's home to check the fish, which Parkhurst voluntarily turned it over to authorities.
"When staff used a handheld metal detector to scan the fish, the device detected the presence of metal," Marji said. "Wardens then took the fish to the Topeka Zoo for x-ray examination where it was revealed that two steel ball bearings were inside the crappie."
KDWP nullified the catch and reinstated the previous state record as the reigning state record. It made Parkhurst's fish available for return. It also turned Parkhurst's case over to the county attorney's office, who stated no plans to prosecute. Parkhurst has been implicated in several criminal cases and charged with at least five felonies since 2019, records indicate.
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