Many anglers think first of crappie when they think of the lakes along the Yadkin River in the Central Piedmont, partly because these lakes were front-runners of proactive crappie management in North Carolina.

Five lakes in the Yakin Chain have been managed with a 20-fish limit and 8-inch minimum size since 1991, and the same regulations have since been adopted for several other waterways. Last year, the special regulations were put into place for Blewett Falls, the last major impoundment along the Yadkin, and for the last stretch of the Yadkin/Pee Dee River before it crosses into South Carolina.

The Yadkin lakes don't produce as many crappie overall as do several other Piedmont reservoirs; however, the fish tend to grow well. The special regulations allow more crappie to "grow shoulders," along with protecting year-classes from over-harvest and therefore moderating big annual swings in crappie populations.

While all the lakes in the Yadkin Chain have their fans, Badin probably enjoys the best reputation for producing genuine slabs. Deep laydowns and beds of vegetation in both major arms hold the highest number of fish in Badin. Docks, which most anglers fish by the "shooting" cast technique, also yield their share of crappie. The big crappie feed primarily on threadfin shad in Badin.

While Badin tends to produce the biggest fish from the Yadkin Chain, High Rock and Tuckertown have the biggest reputations among local anglers for the overall quality of their crappie offerings.

West of the Yadkin Chain, a string of lakes along the Catawba River also produces big numbers of crappie, with Lake Wylie leading the way among these lakes. One of North Carolina's most productive lakes, Wylie is absolutely loaded with baitfish and it sustains high numbers of crappie year after year despite very heavy pressure and without the benefit of any special regulations.

Through the heart of spring, a lot of crappie can be caught off docks, which abound around most parts of Lake Wylie. Crappie fishing stays good year 'round on this lake, however, and Wylie regulars tend to spend more time away from the banks, fishing submerged brushpiles.

Anglers who know the whereabouts of specific brushpiles either fish the brush vertically or cast over them and then count down jigs or minnows to them. Anglers who don't know where the brush is have a few main options. The first is to go searching with their electronics and then fish promising-looking brush. Another is to troll or drift along creek and river channel edges. The third is to combine the two and troll with several lines out but to remain on the watch for good brush showing on the graph.

Anglers who fish Lake Wylie, which straddles the North Carolina/South Carolina border, should be aware that no reciprocal agreement exists between the two states. An angler must either carry both states' licenses or stay on the proper side of the border.

Other lakes in the Catawba chain produce good crappie fishing, and each has its fans. Lakes farther up in the system are generally less fertile than Lake Wylie, though, and they don't produce nearly as many crappie. Lake Norman, the largest lake in the chain, by far, was added to the special regulations list last year. All crappie must be 8 inches long to be kept on Lake Norman. The limit is 20 crappie.

Along the eastern edge of the Piedmont, all three major impoundments in the Raleigh/Durham area produce great crappie fishing. Lake Jordan has the best reputation of the three as a crappie producer, but lakes Harris and Falls of the Neuse also serve up steady action, especially during the spring.

On Jordan and Harris, any classic woody cover in a creek is apt to have crappie on it, although on Jordan every good-looking piece of cover also may have crappie fishermen on it. On Lake Harris, which tends to get overlooked as a crappie lake, anglers should focus on hydrilla beds, fishing holes in the grass and edges.

Piedmont crappie fishermen also should not overlook municipal water supply reservoirs throughout the region. Several of these small lakes consistently yield big stringers of quality crappie during the spring. City lakes known for fine crappie fishing include lakes Farmer, Michie, Rogers, High Point, Ramseur and Reece and Roxboro City Lake.

Lake Lucas, also known as Ashboro City Lake No. 4, holds claim to North Carolina's state-record crappie. This 200-acre lake yielded a 4-pound, 15-ounce giant in 1980. Lake Reece, which produces 3-pound-plus crappie every spring, has given up fish up to 4 pounds, 12 ounces.

When the hurricane came ashore on Sept. 18, the storm surge, along with heavy rains, caused massive swamp flooding, followed by a fast draining of the water. That dumped oxygen-poor waters from the swamps into the rivers and filled them with organic materials, which began decomposing and using even more dissolved oxygen.

In the Chowan and lower Roanoke, the two most significant rivers in that part of the state for crappie fishing, dissolved oxygen levels plunged low enough to kill virtually all sport fish, based on post-hurricane sampling efforts. Making things extra difficult for anglers, these waters had just recovered from the devastation of Hurricane Floyd in 1999.

The NCWRC has several aggressive restocking strategies for rivers impacted by the storm. However, at press time there were no specific crappie-stocking plans, as the commission had no crappie source from its hatchery system.

Hurricane damage from the standpoint of fisheries was pretty much limited to the northern coast, where a big storm surge came in. Rivers farther south along the coast suffered no fish kills, and the upper Roanoke, including the two big lakes that impound it, fared fine.

Buggs Island, which impounds 48,900 acres along the North Carolina/Virginia border, clearly is the main attraction for crappie fishermen in that part of the state, with its closest rival being Lake Gaston, immediately downstream. Buggs consistently kicks out very good crappie action, with plenty of genuine slabs in the mix.

Highly fertile and loaded with great crappie habitat, Buggs is a slab factory. Throughout spring, when water levels are typically high, the crappie enjoy amazing amounts of flooded willows and other woody cover to gather around.

During the spring, most crappie and crappie fishermen move up into Buggs Island's major creek arms, where they fish a lot of different ways. Beyond the most obvious approach of casting minnows or jigs under floats around endless willows, stumps and blowdowns, a lot of anglers will troll spreads of the same types of offerings through the center of creeks or shoot boat docks and pontoons.

While Lake Gaston has never gained the fame that Buggs Island has, it, too, is an outstanding crappie lake. Anglers who come from the immediate area and have known the fishery enjoy outstanding fishing and catch a lot of really big crappie. Anglers who want to catch crappie on Lake Gaston should stick with creek arms and the back halves of major cuts off the main-river channel.

A reciprocal licensing agreement between North Carolina and Virginia allows anglers properly licensed by either state to fish anywhere on Buggs Island or Lake Gaston.

Anglers who like fishing small waters might take special interest in Buckhorn Lake, a fairly new lake in Wilson and Nash counties, which was assigned special regulations to protect its crappie and bass last year. A 20-fish limit is designed to better distribute the harvest among crappie fishermen, said Wayne Jones, District 3 fisheries biologist. The regulations have not been in place long enough to have had a major impact, but Buckhorn promises to be a good crappie lake in the long term.

Rivers don't get a huge amount of press for their crappie fishing, but some coastal rivers offer extensive quality crappie habitat and support good fish populations. Anglers who do fish the backwaters of these rivers typically enjoy good action.

The Neuse River is a good example. Creel surveys conducted last year showed light crappie-fishing pressure on Neuse, especially when compared to efforts directed toward largemouth bass and sunfish. However, anglers who did target crappie enjoyed good catch rates, with the majority of the fish caught having been more than 8 inches long, said Bob Barlett, Region 2 fisheries biologist.

Without angler-independent data, gathering with trap nets, shocking equipment or some other means, there is no way to properly assess the quality of the crappie population, according to Barlett. However, the river offers a lot of good habitat, including extensive backwaters and large amounts of woody debris in the water, and limited creel data does suggest that crappie fishermen do well in the river.

Some coastal rivers and lakes are managed with a 20-fish creel limit but no minimum size.