A friend of mine emailed me earlier this week with a story and a photo of himself holding a bass of maybe six pounds. I checked out the lake on Google Maps--looks like it may be four or five acres in size. I've X-ed out a couple of things in the email:

When I would ride my bike down XXXX, I would catch a glimpse of a lake behind this barn. I finally cornered the landowner and asked if I could take my son fishing. He said 'yes,' just do him a favor. . . take out all the 5, 6, 7 lb. bass we catch?!!! Come to find out he actively manages that lake for giant crappie and he really did want me to take out all those giant bass. He puts $3K (400 lbs.) worth of bait fish in there every spring! Anyway, I told him that I would respect his wishes but that I was morally opposed to killing those big fish. But, he really, really wants them out. Oh, the dilemma. The day we caught that fish we caught probably 4 more like that plus about 50 others in less than an hour. No kidding. Talk about shooting fish in a barrel. XXX hooked two others that spit the hook that were bigger than that, and I landed a 22" fish that was spawned out. We never did catch any crappie but when I talked to the landowner later he told me the location of a giant brush pile he sank a few years back where I am sure the crappie are stacked. Get this - he's talking 2-3# crappie that are the STAPLE of his lake...We won't be able to fish it again until late this week or next. One of those dream lakes.