
PUBLISHER
Dan Dannenmueller
EDITOR
Richard Simms
SR. WRITER
Tim Huffman
ART/ CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Matt Mullikin
GUEST WRITERS
Steve McCadams
Keith Lusher
Richard Hines
Larry Whiteley
Terry Madewell
Keith Sutton
Michael Giles
Brad Wiegmann
Larry Marek
Brent Frazee
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Cover Photo Credit
In days gone by every crappie fisherman was after huge stringers of crappie. However, more recently, many states are restricting crappie creel limits more than ever. Sometimes the goal is to encourage bigger crappie while, in other cases, biologists simply want to maintain populations and/or distribute the catch among more anglers. But are those more restrictive regulations working? CrappieNOW writer Brent Frazee investigates. Photo by Richard Simms
Recently, my mom passed away and is with all of Sue and I’s family in heaven. It was a painful time and one I can never forget. Her passing has pushed me to reminisce about the good years with our families. Looking at old pictures and keepsakes she had of dad’s and hers caused many a tear to well up in our eyes.
We lived on the skinny as all our families did not have a lot of money, but our moms and dads and grandparents taught us well. Our heritage was farming, 100 acre or less family, self-made clearings, hay fields, big vegetable gardens which were the source of hundreds of canned goods in our dirt and concrete sellers.
We played in the dirt and used our imaginations of what the world was like. We prayed every night and went to church on Sundays. No matter the time of the year, we ate fish on Fridays, every Friday. Mostly fish we caught during the year. Filleted and in the ice boxes and freezers. Every type of fish was fair game.
Any waterway in the bootheel of Missouri within safe driving distance was open season. We fished the Mississippi river, the North ditch, Mingo Reserve, Big Oak State Park, Duck Creek, Charlston ditches, field drainage creeks and so much more.
We were armed with fresh cane poles, nylon line, big Eagle Claw hooks and a few of the ancient steel rods and reels until the dawn of Zebco. My first Zebco 33 was my prize and glory.
We mainly used cut bait for catfish. The old grocery stores in places like Oran, MO, in the butcher’s case would always have Chicken Livers, stinky shrimp, and other choice parts.
To catch game fish like crappie, some bass, and panfish, we would use long handled, small, messed pole nets to sein ditches that held water most of the year along roadways to catch crawfish, minnows etc. Occasionally, we would buy a couple dozen minnows but mostly it was a mission of stocking live tubs of crawfish and minnows.
When grasshoppers were in season, we would go on hand grabbing missions to capture our bait. Crickets and worms were fair game as well. One key summer bait was catalpa worms. These black and yellow grub like tree leaf eating worms were wonderful bait for all species.
After each trip, almost every weekend and in the summer even weekdays, we had big fish cleaning sessions. The kitchen tables were lined with newspapers, fillet knives were sharpened on whetstones, and the cleaning began. The fresh fish was wonderful. I have some pictures of these events, and everyone had fun.
As I wipe away some tears writing this, I hope everyone of you have some memories like this. I have had waves of these memories invade my mind and I want every one of them to always be there. God blessed us with some of the most beautiful places. Stay united as families and with nature.
God bless
Dan Dannenmueller – PUBLISHER