FARMERVILLE – Crappie, known as sac-a-lait farther south, grow big in this neck of the woods, northeast Louisiana.

A Farmerville crappie fisherman found that out Feb. 27 when he caught his personal best, a 2.86-pound white crappie, while fishing Bussey Brake Reservoir in Morehouse Parish. That fish could have been the highlight of the sunny, warm late winter afternoon for Shane Hodge.

Hodge, who was a guest in the boat of Steve Adams, a local guide, kept fishing with 1/16-ounce black/white hair jigs, eyes locked on live sonar. According to the story first reported by Kinny Haddox in his lakedarbonnelife.com blog, Adams hooked a BIG crappie that became unhooked at the boat before it could be netted by Hodge.

They both monitored the revolutionary marine electronics and watched as the slab swam back into underwater bushes.

“Steve threw a bait at him again but it didn’t bite, so Steve told me to cast at it and I flipped my jig at there and he ate it. We knew it was a big one, but had no idea how big until it came up and rolled on its side,” Hodge told Haddox. “Steve scooped it up with the net and we stopped and weighed it on his scale. It weighed 3.63 on his portable scale. We put it in the livewell and we knew we needed to come get it weighed officials. But we had a hard time leaving because the big fish just kept biting.”

Hodge had a new personal best in the livewell and, as events unfolded, the No. 2 white crappie in the state record books. He eventually convinced another fishing buddy, Justin Bailey of Farmer, to go open up his store at Lake D’Arbonne.

Farmer, who also was fishing for crappie on Bussey Brake Reservoir with visiting Missouri pro sac-a-lait fisherman Matthew Rogers, who was in the area for a recent tournament, agreed and they all drove to K&M Coffee, Corks and Camo in Farmerville. The store had a certified scale.

Both of Hodge’s white crappie were weighed and the biggest tipped the electronic scale to 3.65 pounds, which moved it into second place in the state records behind a 3.80-pound white crappie caught by Tim Ricca in Lake Verret in May 2010.

Hodge, 50, a regional salesman for PeroxyChem LLC, which manufactures hydrogen peroxide and other chemicals, contacted the state Wildlife and Fisheries Department to make sure he followed the procedures to get a fish certified in the Top 10 in the Sportsman’s Paradise.

Hodge told Haddox, “This was one of those days that you dream of. Catching my personal best twice in one day, that was awesome. And to be able to weigh it and find out it was almost a state record. That’s something.”

He released both fish alive in Lake D’Arbonne. They swam away immediately after being weighed.

The crappie bite is on at Bussey Brake Reservoir, for sure.

Bailey and Rogers got on slabs that day. The Farmerville man texted Adams to come join in on the fun at Bussey Brake and Adams called Hodge.

“They are up in that thick, thick brush getting ready to spawn and it’s hard to get a boat up in there where they are. It’s also hard to even get a bait up in there. If you make too much noise trying, you spook the fish off,” Hodge said in the lakedarbonnelife.com blog and the Louisiana Sportsman. “But what was happening Sunday is that the big fish decided to feed. They would swim out in the open water and chase shad, then swim back up into the cover. We actually saw several of them swim back in the thick stuff. That’s how we caught fish. We were able to get a bait in front of some of them before they went back in the cover.”

Hodge’s big white crappie bumped a 3.60-pounder — caught last year at Bussey Brake Lake by James Anthony Griffin of Bastrop — to No. 3.