By "everything," he means that the fish are blessed with a long growing season, plenty of food and enough wood, grass and deep-water sanctuaries to hide from predators. There is plenty of water for anglers to fish and enough predictable patterns that will be successful.

If you're looking for numbers and food for the table, Gentry recommends fishing with minnows around the cypress trees and isolated stumps that dot the area. There's nothing fancy about this technique -- just a minnow under a bobber. Keep moving and by the end of the day, you'll have enough for dinner . . . probably several dinners, as a matter of fact.

But if you're looking for a 15-, 16- or 17-inch trophy, fish the ditches.

"They (ditches) are everywhere," Gentry advised. "Most of them are only a couple of feet deeper than the surrounding water, but you can find them easy enough with your depthfinder. Look for the ones that twist and turn.

"The ones with grassflats along them are the very best. You won't catch very many crappies from those spots, but you'll catch the best ones."

His favorite technique is to cast a small safety-pin-style spinnerbait along the grass-lined edges of the ditches on the twists, turns and swings. His preference is for bright colors -- white, chartreuse, or fluorescent hues of yellow, green or pink -- in a 1/8-ounce size. Most days, a single Colorado blade is best. But occasionally, two small willow-leaf blades will draw the most action.

Regardless, however, he tries to fish the spinnerbait as close to the edge of the ditch as possible, right near the top where the weeds stop and the drop starts. "I just pull it along, straight and smooth, and try to tick the weeds," he said. "This is a reaction bite. I don't do anything fancy, just try to let them see it."

His second choice of lures is -- not surprisingly -- a jig. Small hair jigs in shad colors will trigger the same type of strike, especially if you pull them along in much the same manner: straight and smooth.

When fishing the ditches, depth is critical. Crappie will move up for food, but not down. Accordingly, Gentry always starts out shallow and works his way deeper until he finds the magic spot. He firmly believes that most anglers fish too deep for river crappie. "Start shallow, stay shallow" is his motto.

The Ohio River is a good crappie fishery. Give it a try this year!