Growing up in central KS. my family almost always targeted largemouth bass in ponds. We only caught crappie accidently. After veiwing a couple of years worth of Rick Z.'s and Joe H.'s articles waxing eloquent on the pursuit of crappie, I gave it a shot tonight on our subdivision pond. Naturally, I trusted the venerable hare's ear (#12) as per Joe's addiction. Casting the HEN at the end of a 6X tippet, I just let it sink real slow. Tonight, at least, the crappie were very gentle taking the HEN--indicated by the changing rate of the leader sinking. Without the RZ's and JH's articles here on FAOL, for guidance, I doubt that I would have caught on the subtleties of shallow water spring crappie fishing. I had a blast, with around 2 dozen black crappie, a dozen nice bluegills, 4 green sunfish and 3 small largemouths in a couple of hours. Since our subdivision collects all of the lawn runoff I don't keep any fish--strictly catch and release. I know--almost sacrilege when it comes to crappie.

I think the best part of the night was learning to recognize the subtle take and improving as the night went on...

Thanks Rick and Joe.

BW