Photo by Ron Sinfelt

Virtually any angler can visit almost any reservoir in North Carolina during the peak of the spring "crappie run" and find some fishing action up a creek. Fishing is easy when the crappie pile up around shallow cover, and even marginal fisheries can serve up good action.

Late winter also can provide good crappie fishing. In fact, the action can be outstanding, but finding fish requires a bit more know-how and far more searching because the fish are generally deeper and they move regularly with fast-changing conditions.

Arguably, the single most important thing an angler can do to shorten the searching process and up his odds of success this time of year is to select a lake that supports a first-rate crappie population. With that in mind, we've chosen two of the very best -- Lake Wylie and Buggs Island -- and have gotten the inside scoop from veteran guides on both lakes regarding how and where to find winter crappie.

LAKE WYLIE
"It's hard to go crappie fishing on Lake Wylie and have a bad day," said Jerry Neely of Jerry's Fishing Guide Service. It's hard for Neely anyway. He has been fishing Lake Wylie for 43 years, so he knows what to expect from the lake and its abundant slabs and always knows where to begin looking.

A 13,443-acre impoundment of the Catawba River that straddles the North Carolina/South Carolina border near Charlotte, Lake Wylie is highly fertile, and it produces seemingly endless numbers of high-quality crappie year after year, despite very heavy fishing pressure. Neely expects to catch numerous 2-pound-plus crappie any given day on Lake Wylie, and every now and then he or one of his clients hauls in a legitimate 3-pounder.

Neely, who guides for crappie, bass and catfish, has watched crappie fishing techniques evolve over the years. Four decades ago, when he first began fishing the lake, the only way anyone ever fished for Lake Wylie crappie was to tight-line a jig into brush or around rocks. Over time, however, anglers began to learn new ways to present jigs and minnows to the fish. Crappie fishing also used to be primarily a springtime game on Lake Wylie, but it has grown into a year-round sport for many anglers.

Among the longest established winter approaches, which Neely said is still very effective, is to pitch jigs around laydowns in the South Fork River, within a couple of miles downstream of the warmwater discharge from the Allen Steam Station. The warmer water stacks up the crappie, especially if power is being generated and there is a fresh, warm current. Neely suggested pitching a jig just upstream of the cover and letting the current carry the offering to awaiting fish. If there's no current, he's apt to choose a different technique.

During late winter and early spring, crappie also pile up at the ends of deep docks in and around the mouths of major creeks, especially in the lower half of the lake (in North Carolina and South Carolina). Neely catches many really big crappie from mid-January though March by vertical jigging 1/16-ounce hair jigs around dock pilings and especially around brush, which can be found at the ends of many docks on Lake Wylie. This time of year, Neely prefers docks that stretch into 20 or so feet of water.

For anglers who don't know which docks have brush around them, it's worthwhile to invest a bit of time graphing the waters at the ends of several docks. The best waters are deep enough that fish are unlikely to be spooked, and the time spent is worth the trouble if it makes fishing time more productive. It's also worth noting that docks equipped with cleaning tables, fishing chairs and lights designed to shine on the water are the most likely to have brush sunk at the ends of them.