The crappie spawn is close at hand. Reese Jones at Hook, Line and Sinker in Rogers said crappie are moving into shallow water. Best way to catch them is with a minnow or jig 2 feet below a bobber.

Slab crappies are meat eaters—sure enough minnow munchers. They take artificials well at times, especially jigs—but big crappie will turn their noses at even the best of the best crappie lures.

Henry David Thoreau once wrote, "Many people go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after." In my experience, this rings especially true for crappie fishing. Let's be ...