Dave Beck

While waiting for the muskies to get more active, I have trended toward crappie fishing. It’s not that I can’t catch a musky this early in the season, it’s just that it requires a lot more time and effort. For now, my time and effort are directed towards the fixings for a great crappie garage fish fry; one of my simple pleasures in life. I can prepare fish in various ways, but Shore Lunch Beer Batter is my game and at the top of the list. 

I met up with Rookie for Operation Crappie Fish Fry. Our outings are never frequent enough, but I guess at the same time it makes the ones we share together that much more special. He once caught a musky while lighting a cigar and threatened to write a “how to” article about his new revolutionary cigar lighting/musky catching technique. He even guessed that Musky Hunter magazine would reward him handsomely for his story. That right there tells you why Rookie is boat worthy.  

We didn’t find the crappies right away. It took two or three spots before we found them off the deep side of a windblown weed edge which is where you’d expect to find them. I guess that goes to show you that not all windblown weed edges are created equal. Once we found them, the action was fast and furious. Very quickly crappies were headed for the live well. Actually, they were headed towards Rookie’s side of the live well. In Rookie’s boat there is a dividing panel in the middle of the live well and before I even knew it, it was a competition with seven fish on his side of the tank and a big goose egg on my side.    

Whenever I take a guest out in my boat I am thrilled when they catch more fish than I do because it means that I have done my job. This time in Rookie’s boat, guest or not, he was on an epic crappie roll. By the time Rookie had caught his 10th fish, finishing out his limit, I had a paltry total of three fish. At least he kept us on the spot long enough for me to finally catch my own. It was kind of crazy how quick he caught his limit and he was even quicker to point that out to me over and over.  

When it was all said and done, I ended up with enough fish for my crappie fish fry. After the crappie thrashing that I took in the boat I decided to alter my beer batter recipe which calls for half a bottle. I upped the beer portion to two bottles and the end result was that the fish still tasted great and I felt better.  

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