I'm not going to tell you where I fish: You'll have to identify your own crappie lakes and ponds, and gain permission to fish from the owner. NRCS watershed lakes are all over north Missouri. To locate a lake, visit your local NRCS office and ask the district conservationist for the location, ownership, and age of the lakes. If you enjoy great crappie fishing, it'll be well worth the effort.

CRAPPIE FISHING TIPS
I'm not going to spend a lot of time on fishing instruction, as we all presumably know how to fish; however, I am going to provide some tips I picked up from the MDC research biologist who conducted the original crappie research. Over the years, his suggestions have helped me locate and catch numerous spawning crappie.

The annual crappie spawn takes place when water temperatures reach the mid-60s. Males move onto the banks to build nests and wait for individual females to move to the nests to spawn. Once the female deposits her eggs and the male fertilizes them, the latter guards the nest for 15 to 20 days; he will not stir until the eggs hatch and the fry leave the nests.

The depth at which the nest is set is controlled by water clarity. The clearer the water, the deeper the nest; conversely, the dingier the water the shallower the nest. You can determine the approximate nest depth by lowering a white jig off the side of the boat and marking the depth at which you lose sight of the jig in the water; crappie will be building nests at this approximate depth along the bank, and rather than fish blindly, you can target this depth.

The other tip the biologist conveyed provided a method for locating larger females during the spawn. Female crappie stage in loose schools out in open water at the depth of the nests. Once you locate males on nests and determine the approximate nest depth, turn and fish out in the open water at the same depth for the females. To keep a jig at the correct depth, attach a small float to your spinning line.

It was also suggested that I use line of the smallest diameter (that is, the lightest) that my rods could handle. He used 2-pound-test line; I generally set my spinning rods up with both 2-pound and 4-pound lines. The clearer the water, the more essential this becomes.

CRAPPIE MANAGEMENT
The MDC has become a leader among natural resource agencies with regards to crappie management. The success of Missouri's crappie management program testifies to the outstanding crappie fishing that we now experience.

Beginning in the '60s and continuing through the '70s, MDC researchers studied crappie management techniques and crappie populations in Table Rock Lake and other large Missouri lakes. This long-term research effort led to the development of several innovative approaches to crappie management that at the time were remarkably innovative. Now most states have adopted similar strategies.

For many years, anglers and biologists believed that crappie populations in large lakes would inevitably tend to overpopulation and stunt the average specimen, resulting in many small crappie and few large individuals. At that time, the solution, it was felt by the scientists, consisted in increasing harvest. That was then; this is now.