Cedar Creek’s 784 acres in Lincoln County have a ton of natural and manmade cover. There’s cover on the bank, cover in the creek channels, cover on the points — cover everywhere. Anglers may want to note that often crappie come shallow in smaller reservoirs sooner than the big Corps lakes. Sometimes the water seems to warm a little faster in smaller impoundments. You may want to start checking this month, rather than mid-April for those first fish to start doing their thing.

Last year, biologists were really hyped up about the crappie fishing potential at Rough River Lake in mid-western Kentucky. The previous year was excellent for anglers, and 2004 was very good as well. This spring, there should still be some big crappie available, fish 10, 12 and 14 inches long, as well as the smaller versions.

Anglers may find this to be another excellent year on Rough River.

“We’ve had excellent population levels the past two years, and although the year-classes that made up the higher quality fish have been worked on, there should still be some very good crappie in this lake this spring,” biologist David Bell said.

“You know, it doesn’t look too bad over at Nolin for this spring, either,” said Bell, of the other major reservoir in his region.

“A lot of anglers go back and forth between these two lakes, and I think they’re finding some good crappie fishing at both places.

“We had a big group of 7- to 10-inch fish moving through the system last year, and that population will probably dominate the catch this spring.

“It looked good when we checked it, and I hope the weather and water conditions will be favorable so anglers can have the best chance to get on these fish as soon as possible,” Bell said.

“It was kind of quiet around these lakes for crappie talk until a year or two ago, and things have really been looking up here recently,” the biologist concluded.

WESTERN & SOUTHWESTERN REGIONS

The strong year-class of 2001 will lead a decent fishing year at Green River Lake this spring, according to biologist B.D. Laflin. Green River also sports a 9-inch minimum size limit on crappie, and Laflin’s check on the population shows some of that year-class was hitting that mark in 2004, and most of the rest, along with fish from previous years’ spawns, should be available for anglers to take home.

Anglers should spend time around shallow cover, timbered coves with some submerged trees and stumps, and look for new shoreline habitat like fallen trees to fish around. Likewise, fishing along the first ledge or dropoff in creeks is productive, depending on what stage the crappie are in when you go. Fish can be caught in slightly deeper water around brushpiles and stickups in March, before they get right on the banks in April. Sometimes the better crappie are taken early on many Kentucky reservoirs, before everybody goes shallow to the bushes and woody stuff along the bank.

We mentioned earlier that some reservoirs in Kentucky have been good for crappie year in and year out, or at least perhaps the best fishing that’s available in a given year. Kentucky Lake, followed by sister Lake Barkley, is the Commonwealth’s best examples of consistent crappie catching.

It seems like it’s not so much a question of the quality of crappie caught because for a long time the average size crappie taken on Kentucky Lake has been 10 inches. But a great year is sometimes determined by the number of big crappie caught, not the size of the fish. Crappie from Barkley and Kentucky lakes are almost always as good or better in size than you will normally come across anywhere else.

The stability of the crappie populations in both Kentucky and Barkley lakes remains good for this spring. There are many 10-inch fish available, and excellent numbers of fish coming on under that mark. In both lakes, black crappie numbers have come on strong. Anglers are finding this species on their lines now much more than in past seasons.

Telemetry studies conducted by biologist Paul Rister have revealed that anglers who want to catch black crappie need to get fishing from mid- to late March. These fish come shallow sooner than white crappie, and if you wait until April, you may miss some excellent fishing.

On some lakes, black crappie will be found in shallower water than white crappie. You may need to look to shallow-water cover for black crappie, and the more submerged off the bank habitat for white crappie.

Both of these reservoirs should provide some good slabs this spring. There is certainly enough water to go around between these two huge reservoirs. Blood River embayment is always a top choice on Kentucky, but any of the creeks will hold crappie from one end to the other when they come in close to the banks.

The lakes mentioned here should keep you in plenty of spring crappie action, regardless of which end of the state you want to explore. These by no means are the only choices to find excellent papermouth angling. In a given year, about any Kentucky waterway can give up some fine crappie when the weather is right.

For other ideas of where to try crappie fishing this spring, contact the KDFWR Information Center at (800) 858-1549, or visit the Web site at http://fw.ky.gov for a copy of the 2005 Fishing Forecast and the latest updates. Most KDFWR crappie netting studies are done in mid- to late October. Fall anglers have likely seen biologists on lakes pulling nets and seeing what they’ve caught. (All fish are released, of course.) The Fishing Forecast may contain some additional information on what biologists found and may highlight other waters where crappie are doing well in the Bluegrass State.