CRAPPIE FEVER

April and May are wonderful times to fish. Last week I took my 12-year-old son, Cody, to Marion Reservoir to catch some crappie. With twins I don't get much one-on-one time with either son but his brother chose to go to a movie with friends. My daughter would have went but said she needed to be back by 7 p.m. and I told her we were staying until dark as the crappie action often gets good later in the evening. Boy was I right.

We started fishing about 3 p.m. and caught a few fish. We had seven or eight crappie the first few hours so it wasn't fast. Cody never really put his rod down, other than to get into the cooler to get something to eat or drink, which was unusual when fishing was slow. Both he and his brother's attention span has always been short thus far, which is nothing unusual for youngsters, if the action was slow. I told Cody we'd try another stretch of bank and if we didn't do any good we'd head home. The first couple casts we caught fish on a jig and bobber. As it got darker, the fish started biting better but it was getting late. I mentioned several times to Cody about leaving and his answer was always the same..."one more cast, Dad." He was in a zone and catching fish regularly and every bit as fast as me so I wasn't about to quit. We fished until we couldn't see our bobbers and I caught the last couple on nothing but feel. At 9:10 p.m. we picked up to head home. We'd caught 35 or so with most fish in the 9 1/2 to 11 1/2-inch range. We didn't have any monster crappie but had a half-dozen between 1 and 1 1/4 pounds which were just over 13 inches long.

But this trip really wasn't about the fish we cleaned, it was about watching Cody take a step as a young angler. I think he realized that we couldn't catch fish all the time but when we did it made those few hours prior seem worthwhile. Both boys have always been good at catching, but never real good at simply fishing. I think Cody figured out fishing is not always good, but when it is it can be great.