Where Have the Bass Gone?

It was one of those nights. Everything seemed prime for a great evening of bass fishing.  Nice warm summer evening, stable barometer, calm conditions (maybe more farourable for me than the fish).  We hit the water around 6pm in search of small or largemouth bass.The setting seemed perfect.  But where were the bass.  We managed to find a few smallmouths in the one pound range but not much else.  Persistence wasn't paying off despite varying the approach.  The biggest thing we saw was a beaver who seemed upset that we were fishing in his home waters.  At least the slap of the tail a couple times suggested it to us.Although the bass proved elusive, as the sun started to set the crappies started to feed.   Positioning ourselves off the edge of the massive weed beds expanding out from the shore, we hit upon a school of crappies that were more than willing to cooperate for the last half hour or so before the oncoming darkness forced us back in.Despite the lack of bass, any evening out fishing is a good evening and the crappies were a bonus.And one take away - bring in your fly line before you kick through the weed bed.  I didn't and my line is in sore need of a good cleaning!