Magnolias and forsythia are blooming in Minneapolis, it is only March 22nd. Way early!

But the crappie bite is on. Below is one of some dozens of crappies two of us took this evening in about 2 and a half hours. None of the rest was this size though, mostly 8/9 inches. All were put back to bite another day.

13 and 1/4" The long
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And the short of it
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This little cutie actually bit on the inch and a half tube you see in its mouth. One for the Dink Chronicles. This was the long and the short of it for me anyway. My partner has a much more impressive tale, but that is for another thread.

The crappies were in the back of a shallow cove. Air temp was in the mid 60's and there was a light drizzle. Pods kept coming and going. The bite was on the tubes, on black Twisters, on rattail baby shad baits, on tiny rapalas and my big crappie came on the tiny Salmo you see in the mouth of the crappie above. The bite would die down every once in a while as a muskie would cruise through. Shoreline fishermen using minnows were doing a whole lot worse. Mostly they sat. Both of us were rigged with 5' UL rods and 4# clear GAMMA copolymer line.