We had a good time and learned a few things. Brad Whitehead contributed a lot about crappie habitat with his concrete and oak stave crab tree as well as showing us how he drove stakes in the bottom with a stake driver he made out of PVC pipe. Really interesting. His quesion to the audience was "How many people fish for crappie?" and the, "How many people fish for crappie year round?" The first question got most of the hands up, but the second lost about 75% of them. And then he proceeded to tell us how to fish for them year long. Really great info.

Todd Witt (toddwitt.com) filled us in on smallmouth fishing on Pickwick Lake. Jonathan Newton and Jimmy Mason (jandjbassfishing.com) help the bass fishermen a lot. And our own Tim Horton highlighted the class with his experience.

I look forward to seeing this high-powered panel again.

In the meantime, Brad Whitehead and David Waters are trying to get up a crappie fishing club for the shoals area. Next Wednesday, May 11, at 7:30 p.m. at the Muscle Shoals Middle School band room they'll have there first organizing meeting. They'll discuss the association, memberships, and tournament dates.

This is a real good opportunity to be in on the start of something good for crappie fishermen. Maybe with organization and numbers it might be possible to influence TVA in the care of the Tennessee River by providing better habitat.