Are Cold Crappie Worth It?
A young friend of mine has a crappie fishing guide business. During Spring, Summer, Fall, and early Winter, he is busy guiding his paying clients out to catch fish. I hardly ever see or hear from him unless he sends me pictures of his clients holding stringers full of crappie.
But, when the coldest days of February arrive, he always calls and wants to take me and my son fishing. I dearly love the taste of winter crappie but I am old now. My skin is thin and wrinkled. I don’t think my heart pumps blood like it used to. It is much harder to stay warm than it used to be.
I put on my warmest deer hunting clothing. They laughed at me and said I looked like the Pillsbury Dough Boy dressed in camouflage. It did not bother me at all. At that moment, I was comfortably warm.
If we were going ice fishing, it would be a lot better. We could sit in a portable ice shelter out of the wind. We could even have a kerosene heater in there with us. We could tell jokes and stories as we fished in the warmth.
There is no ice fishing where we live. Our lakes never freeze over. So, we meet him at the dock on the open water lake. Standing there visiting as we got ready, there was not much wind, so it was not too cold. We loaded and got in his boat. He pushed the boat throttle forward. The bow rises out of the water.
The younger two in the boat talk as we fly across the water. I am at the bottom of the boat, curled into a fetal position to protect myself from the freezing wind. My teeth are chattering and I might have even been whimpering a little. My eyelids froze together. I could not open them. I don’t know if it was because they were watering or maybe I was crying a little.
I could feel the boat slowing down even though I could not see. It seemed like hours, but finally, we were coasting into a cove to start fishing. God heard my prayers. I hope I can remember everything I promised Him.
The other two were laughing at me again. I didn’t care. My old body was thawing out a little.
My friend got all his electronics going and they were both fishing before I got up from my fetal position. As I picked up my fishing rod with frozen hands, they were both already reeling in crappie.
In spite of frozen fingers, I actually caught one on my first cast. That helped accelerate my warming process. Five fish later, I am not in nearly as much pain. I don’t know if it was from the exercise of catching fish or because the sun was now warming my body. I even took off some of my clothes.
In less than two hours, we all limited out. God bless those new electronics even though they are costly. We sat there for a while. We laughed and talked. Most of the laughing was about me. I laughed with them. I was warm and comfortable now. The sun was shining.
I suffered through the cold that morning, but the cold crappie was worth it.
