MikeThePike,
I know how you feel man on missing the big ones at the hole! The day I caught my big one, I lost 2 at the hole that wouldn't come through my 10" hole. Made me sick! Was using too light of line(2#), and I tried horsing them through. Went to bigger line there after, but never got into the huge slabs again.
The lake I fish produces crappie over 19". My biggest so far came 5 yrs ago and was 18 1/2"and weighed 3#9oz. Bad thing is, the lake is really low now due too the DROUGHT(got water)
It has been really hard the last few years to find the huge ones.
Thriller,
We have black and white crappie here where I fish. Some lakes have both were others just have one or the other.
Greg