Some of the fish in the shallows are scouting for spawning beds and will scoop out those shallow depressions and deposit their eggs soon. Most of the fish, however, are simply looking for an easy meal.
The first fish into the shallows are minnows and fry - the young of many species of fish from last year. The next fish one will notice are small bluegills - my old friend George Bray calls them “jillion fish,” simply because there are so many of them.
The next arrivals are larger bluegills - the kind we like to catch - and bassBonus fish you might catch while fishing the shallows include rock bass and crappie. The rock bass are bedding too at this time and they will hit as surely as you get your popper near one. They will often stalk the lure and then rush in and bang it. While not much bigger than a large bluegill, they have a much larger mouth so they have little trouble eating a sizable popper.
The crappie spawn early and they deposit their eggs in deeper water, but if you fish over some deeper water - three or four feet deep, at least - and near cover, you are likely to catch some crappie on your poppers as well.
The bass of all sizes are fun but the big bluegills are perhaps the most fun. If you hook a 9-10 inch bluegill, that rascal will get sideways and swim hard all around the boat, putting a terrific bend in that light rod. That big bluegill will pull as hard or harder than a bass of almost twice that length.
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