The cold weather this year has been very tenacious on its grip with not moving on to true spring. The calendar says spring has arrived over two weeks ago, but my defrosters have been working overtime.

Every year a group of us work on a highway and stream cleanup project, the main purpose is to welcome people into a more pristine and natural outdoor experience.

How someone can toss litter along the highways and woodlands without a second thought is truly alien to me.

I do believe the practice of leaving it better than you found it.

This is also the time of the year that we check nesting boxes for clean out and repairs.

What you encounter might surprise you and the items tell a story all of their own.

I was cleaning out a wood duck nesting box and found quite a collection of egg shells.

The shells had the look of a successful hatch and most likely a clutch of ducklings made their way into the wetlands of the Slippery Rock Creek headwaters.

At the same time my wife and father –in-law found bluebird eggs that had remained intact except for a small pecked hole from a competitor, most likely an English sparrow.

A wren egg had suffered the same fate a little further along the line of checking nesting boxes.

It’s pretty frustrating when nests are robbed or destroyed when you try hard to give them a good start.

With the trout season being later and Easter Sunday being early we often have down time in the outdoors that is also determined by the weather.

Easter Sunday is important in our family and we make sure that it is reserved for church and family time.

Normally, I would be pulling my fishing boat “The Fish Hawk” out of dry dock and getting her ready for crappie and walleye season…but I am getting cramped up by this weather.

I had run into an old timer…even older timer than me!

He was fishing for crappie and perch along a stretch of the Shenango River coming out of Pymatuning.

He reported that he has had some great success fishing from shore at the lake when the ice starts to recede.

He casts out with night crawlers and chubs and lets them settle at the edge of the ice and open water.

He reports getting wonderful stringers of fresh walleye this way and I am going to give it a try.

Remember that walleye fishing at Pymatuning Lake is open year round with a 15 inch minimum size.

It is not 14” or 14½” its 15”!

You cannot stretch out the minimum length of your fish, nor would you want to when +24” fish are common.

Any angler worth his split shot will tell you that the difference between a minimum size walleye and a good keeper is significant.

Make sure that if you fish from shore that you stay in the PA side of the lake and don’t wander into Ohio without proper licenses.

This is also the time of the year when big slab crappies come into the shallows for their spawning run.

Any open bays with water warming up earlier and stretches of brush or timber down is likely a good area to fish. Maps of the lake will show places that manmade fish cribs and brush piles have been set for fish to congregate. Often times when the pan fish congregate you will find predator fish like muskies and big channel cats.

\I saw a pair of muskies that were cruising a back bay up at Lake Wilhelm in Sandy Lake a few years back, they were fishing for crappies too!

Crappies love to take small fathead minnows or plastic grubs fished under a floating bobber or sometimes just cast out free line style with a slow retrieve.

Make sure that you bring lots of terminal gear because if you fish the sunken timber structures you are likely going to have some snags in your efforts to bring home slab sized crappies.

The biggest crappie caught in Pennsylvania the past season was 18 inches long and weighing in around 3 lbs. and still was a pound light of the state record 4 lbs.

Can you imagine filling a 5 gallon bucket full of those beauties!?

The best part of crappie fishing is that nearly any kind of light fishing tackle will handle them.

I love to use a light weight rod and line to bring those fighting slabs in to the bucket.

The best part of fishing for pan fish is that they are easy to fillet and with your favorite fish breading make for great table fare, anyone who has tried fresh fried crappie fillets will line up for more.

Until we meet again have a Blessed Easter and do something good for you and the environment!

Jay Hewitt is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle.