I was raised a crappie fisherman by a diehard crappie fisherman in my native Ohio back in the 1970s. There, crappies were a spring thing, complete with yellow-flowered flooded willows, red-and-white round bobbers, cane poles, No. 4 Eagle Claw hooks and 2- to 3-inch “crappie minnows.”
In 2015, I found myself once again a resident of Washington State. And while silver salmon, lingcod and black sea bass indeed have their appeal, I longed for the tug and tussle of a slab crappie … not to mention a big old fish fry with Señor Crappie as the guest of honor. Trouble was, I didn’t know where to look. I didn’t even know if western Washington had crappies. Or, for that matter, if the western edge
