Spring is the best time to pursue extra-large crappies, or "slab-sides," like the pair shown here. Photo by Tom Berg.

Nothing could shake my concentration. I watched as the bright red and yellow float trembled for an instant, and then it slowly started moving down and to the right like a slow-moving submarine. It didn't bob up and down several times and it didn't plunge down from a ferocious strike. It was the unmistakable sign that a crappie had just inhaled my minnow and was nonchalantly swimming off with its prey. It was exactly what I was hoping for.

I wanted to rear back and set the hook as soon as I saw the bobber move, but I knew better. Crappies will often manipulate a minnow and turn it around in their mouths as they swim away, and a premature hookset can easily result in a missed fish. "Patience," I told myself.

I waited until the float was completely submerged before I struck, and I wasn't disappointed. My hookset was met with a solid weight at the other end of the line. It was obvious that I had connected with another slab-sized crappie. The fish came to the surface as I reeled him in, his silvery sides flashing in the morning sunlight. I lifted it into the boat and placed another 12-inch papermouth into the livewell.

Spring crappie fishing can be intense, and there are certainly plenty of lakes and reservoirs in our great state to try your luck. To help you narrow down the list of choices, Indiana Game & Fish has identified five fishing lakes where you have an excellent chance of catching a limit of crappies this spring. They include Sullivan, Dogwood, Hovey, Patoka and Jones lakes.

SULLIVAN LAKE
Sullivan Lake in southwest Indiana is just outside of the town of Sullivan. This relatively small reservoir (461 acres) has a maximum depth of 25 feet and an average depth of around 10 feet. The main fish species present are white crappies, bluegills, largemouth bass, saugeyes (walleye-sauger hybrids) and gizzard shad.

According to Dave Kittaka, the District 6 fisheries biologist for the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), Sullivan Lake is a great place to fish for crappies.

"Traditionally, this lake has provided excellent crappie fishing opportunities," he said. "As a matter of fact, most anglers who fish this lake target crappies in particular."

A creel survey was performed here in 2003, and fishermen exclusively targeting crappies accounted for an impressive 46.3 percent of all anglers surveyed. If you include those fishing for crappies in combination with bluegills, the number goes up to 58 percent. By the end of the creel survey (Oct. 31, 2003), an estimated total of 75,176 crappies were harvested from Sullivan Lake.

Dave Kittaka and Kevin Hoffman, the DNR's assistant fish research biologists, both keep an eye on the lakes in their district. "Hoffman collected numerous white crappies in isolated locations throughout Sullivan Lake in March of 2005," Kittaka said.

"The strongest year-class was age 3, and those fish were in the 9- to 10- inch range." By this spring, those fish will be prime targets for fishermen. Look for them around the emerging aquatic vegetation in the shallows as the water temperatures rise.

One interesting fact that Kittaka mentioned concerned the diet of the resident crappies. Although there is a large population of gizzard shad in the lake, the crappies also prey on bugs. "Based on stomach content inspections," Kittaka continued, "Hoffman found that crappies collected in March were feeding heavily on caddis fly larvae."

Early-season anglers should keep that in mind when selecting their lures and live baits.