To me, crappie fishing has always revolved around beaver dams. My Grandpa was a firm believer in hitting one of the numerous beaver dams on the lakes we fished on every trip....usually first stop. Once, at one of our favorite beaver dams, my Grandpa, my Grandma, my Mom and I were sitting there catch our share of crappie when we heard a faint whining sound. Being spring we eventually realized that it was beaver pups in the den. A few minutes later a beaver comes swimming out and looks us over and swims off.....so back to the fishing we went. About ten minutes later roughly about 20 yards away a beaver slaps the top of the water with its tail behind us. We turned around and talked about it for a bit, but there were fish to be caught so we got back to business. Five minutes later she let us know that we were not welcome! No more then a foot or two behind us she slapped the top of the water with her tail again. Now, the seating arrangement is important to note at this point.....my Grandpa always sat at the tiller of the outboard in the back, my seat was on the front deck, and my Grandma always had her choice of two seats on the middle bench. On this day, with my Mom along for the trip, she chose to let my Mom take the seat closest to the beaver dam....leaving her to sit in the opposite side....and as it turned out in the line of fire. As we all recovered from the shock of the slap so close to us we turned around to see my Grandma sitting there dripping wet, hair matted down.....hair that she had just paid good money to have done at the beauty shop..... Now, my Grandma was known to have a bit of a temper, not to say she didn't have a sense of humor, but.....Grandma was fluent in words that many sailors would blush at if she was so inclined. We all turn around and froze....waiting to see what was about to happen. There she was dripping wet, hair matted down, red faced and the only thing she could think to say was, "Well, sh*t!" We all busted out laughing and after wiping her face off she joined in. The fishing tapered off quickly that evening and it was a good thing because we couldn't stop laughing!
Chris