A Crappie Day

First time this year fishing. Absolutely gorgeous, sunny day. Light winds and high about 70. Found one pod of crappies and had a blast with a couple about 10-11" hitting on an ultralight. Fished with a Berkely minnow-looking plastic on a 1/16" oz jig. When they hit it, they were mad at it. The boat had been under a tarp since last year. Didn't fish much last year because of the heat and my achy tennis elbow. Learned a few things this weekend: 1. Start the boat before you take it out the first time. That way you can drive over to NAPA and get a fuel line to replace the one in the boat leaking from two mysterious wear spots. 2. If you look into the storage compartments the day before you get to take care of the ant colony that decided to take residence in the life preservers. 3. Covering a boat with a tarp that doesn't completely cover the transom and storing the boat under loblolly pines makes for yellow carpet with lots of needles and catkins. But most of them go away if you tow the boat 70 mph. 4. Stabil and sea foam don't do much for last summer's gas. 5. The new starting battery will die 5 miles from the launch because you cleaned the wiring connectors instead of cutting the wire back and replacing the connectors, you dummy. 6. You can find out how out shape you are trying to pull start a 40hp merc with old gas. 7. A three-year-old trolling motor that has been run off-and-on for 3 hours will get you the first 1.5 miles toward the launch. 8. When you waive at passing boats, they wave back and accelerate, even if you have the engine up and are paddling the boat. 200 hp bass boats pass by but two big guys in a little jon boat with a little motor will stop and tow you. 9. The shortest distance by trolling motor has no fish. 10. If you take I295 rather than I64 to avoid traffic, you will find that I295 is backed up for miles. You will also really, really appreciate that coffee you've been sipping on all day. Can't wait until next weekend so I can do this all over again.