Nearly 7 inches of snow this weekend couldn’t dampen my spirits as the colors came together on my vise.

Looking back through old journals and previous columns with the turn of the calendar to March brought the slightest sense of urgency as I sat at my lure making desk watching the drift form outside my office window.

While real spring fishing is likely two months away, images of slab crappies with my favorite krystal flash jigs for light tackle and bucktail streamers on the fly in the corners of their paper mouths had me thinking of spring — and the early start that a local power plant lake provides — fast forwarded the season for the warmer waters of the impoundment a few minutes north of town.
Hundred fish mornings as the slabs staged to spawn from mid-March into mid-April on the lake which never freezes have provided some personal bests, with both black and white crappies topping 14 inches, and sometimes more depending on the populations and my timing.

No matter if there was snow on the ground, or if spring was early, the schedule generally remains consistent and the fishing is almost always successful.

What’s more, with my boys in the boat, they’ve cast and retrieved jigs — even with their developing skills in the previous years — that brought handfuls of super dark spawning black crappies and deeply-barred white crappies to hand along with some of the lake’s big bluegills capable of taking down a bigger target, making colorful memories by the dozen.

From the post-COVID early spring in 2020 which was a welcome occurrence for a stay-at-home dad turned teacher, to last season’s warmer-than-average March, each season brings fast action and a need for more tackle time at the tying desk to fuel those memories. 
Thankfully, over time I’ve learned that the best lures are often the simplest.

I once timed out 60 jigs, and it took me just over 90 minutes to have the five dozen in their respective compartments of my panfish tacklebox. For Clouser minnows – my go-to staple for specks on the fly, — I could crank out almost 20 in an hour. While my efforts weren’t as urgently needed this weekend, with a good stash of both still in place, I managed to turn out quite a few of each pattern to make sure I had not only my efforts covered in the coming weeks, but those of the rest of the family as well when the banks melt a bit over the next few days and hoped-for warmer weather opens the boat launch next weekend.
With the assistance of my records, stories, and photos, the short bout of cabin fever will be a thing of the past.

Having a solid collection of favorite lures and flies in tow with a little bit of elbow grease at the tying desk, the early spring season is also set for a good start, even if I had to endure another shot of snow before it happens. Because I know, despite that event (and certainly a couple more to come before true spring is here) there’s a fast forwarded path to fun, and some amazing fishing to get ready for in the near term and down the road…in our outdoors.