It sounds like he had the same experience we had a couple of weeks ago. I have alot better luck pulling cranks than pushing them. (although I caught one of my biggest off of a down rod crank.) I seems like everyone of us fishing that weekend caught 5 shorts for every keeper. The new twelve inch limit on the big four down there gets tough sometimes. I've had to throw back some really pretty crappie that would have easily been keepers last year.