Got the itch to catch a few crappies

Got the itch to catch a few crappies, so I dumped the boat in Waconia and chased them around for about three hours. Had some pretty good luck, but not much for size. They are still in pretty shallow. I caught all of my fish in less than 6 feet of water. A bobber and flu-flu without bait are still producing a lot of fish.

The lake has been very busy with panfisherman for three weeks. Living here all my life I have never seen this many boats on Lake Waconia in the spring, ever. I am a little concerned being that most of the panfish are very vulnerable to harvest with the low water. They have no other spawning grounds except the bay, and it is full of boats. If you haven't heard, they have closed many of the shallow bays on other lakes this spring due to low water and fish vulnerability. People are taking pails full of fish home every day. I am not sure what the long term effects are going to be, but if you want to have fish for years to come, all of us have to protect the resource and let them go. I can only hope that this weekend's opener takes the focus off the panfish so they can try and recover. It will hopefully alleviate some of the pressure since most guys will be going after game fish.

When you see pictures from the 1950's, 60's ,and 70's with all those fish they used to catch, doesn't it make you sick? Are we are doing the same thing? We have to preserve our resource, not drown it.