Out in it: A shallow mind helps right now

If you are reading this, you should probably stop. Hook up your boat and read this later. The fish are biting. The light switch has been turned on this week. Many different species have moved shallow with the warming water and they are active.

I've been on three crappie lakes in the last 10 days. The fish were staging just off spawning grounds with the temps holding in the low to mid-50s. As the weather and water warmed, those fish pushed en masse toward the shallows.

This is the time for spawning, a turnaround from the "here today, gone tomorrow" nature of pre-spawn crappies that test an angl...