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Hello from the Excel 230 Elite.

Did I ever tell you I don’t trust weather people? The wind forecasts most days recently have been for 50-60% of what we end up getting. The lake conditions have been just slight of brutal lately. Of course, the crappie don’t care. They just keep on doing crappie stuff. That stuff now includes heading for shallow water to begin the spawn in earnest.

The shallow water migration is on. There are still plenty of crappie hanging out over deep water channels but the cycle of the shallow crappie spawning then moving to deep water while the deep water crappie move shallow will continue for a couple of weeks or more.

Many tuxedo-colored white crappie males are showing up around very shallow cover. The females we are catching in 8-20 feet are dripping eggs.

The surface temperature today went past 65 degrees. The days in the 80s this week will speed that rise. That goes along with the lake level around 358 feet.

The last few days have seen the nice sized white bass become scarce for me. They are probably making their way up the tributaries to their spawn grounds. The sauger are making up for it. Friday during a fun tournament for the pros at Cornfield Fishing Gear Demo Days, we caught 7 sauger with 4 keepers in less than an hour along a main lake bank that we were using for protection from the 40mph wind gusts.

Lots of nice crappie were caught around shallow wood cover using slip bobbers and jigs. Most of the jigs used were of the 1/16 to 1/32oz variety.

Thanks to all who came out to Demo Days. We had a lot of fun and met lots of great folks.

Even with the rain we had during the week, the water color is still much clearer than one would expect in April. The bluegill and Redears are frequenting shallow areas with cover. One of the Cornfield pros caught a 2.64-pound female Redear Friday while Livescoping. He was as happy about it as he would have been a 3 pound crappie.

I’m still trolling medium to shallow running cranks in spawning locations, just along the first drop-off from shallow water. We have caught some really big crappie, two over 16 inches. Both were the personal best for the lucky fishermen.

Watch out for floating gremlins as the lake levels rise and the high winds sweep the banks. Be sure to check your baits and lines often for trash suspended in the water column. A leaf or pine needle isn’t going to attract many bites.

Wednesday looks like a good day to catch up on your housekeeping. Thunderstorms and high winds will see my boat in the garage. Wear your PFDs and watch out for careless boaters who won’t watch out for you. Be careful out there.

Welcome to our slice of Heaven.