The weather outside is usually "frosty" in February, but crappie are ready and willing to bite for knowledgeable anglers who know where and how to fish for them.

But just where do you find crappie this time of year? Right now, check the edges of creek channels. Crappie spend roughly 10 months out of the year in water 20-plus feet deep.

Most of my fishing on Lake Wylie is done on the main river and Big and Little Allison creeks, where I have over 200 brushpiles to choose from ranging between a few feet under the surface on down to 36 feet.

It was late February last year when crappie at Lake Wylie started biting like "gangbusters." Huge schools of fish were concentrated over deep brush located in 40 feet of water at the mouths of coves where they met the main channel.

The weather had been exceptionally nice for the past three days when I called Ben Smith and his wife, Merwyn, who own and operate The Peach Tree in Filbert, to go fishing with me on Big Allison Creek. There was a slight breeze that made the 60-degree weather feel even cooler than it was. Even though the weather was nice, a warm jacket and a hat made the day more pleasant. It wasn't far to one of my brushpiles that had been "hot" that week. After positioning the boat and putting out anchors fore and aft, we rigged up to fish.

Ben and his wife prefer to use minnows, so I had plenty in the Styrofoam cooler. One-eighth-ounce crappie jigs are my choice during the pre-spawn and I tied on a black head, pink collar with a white tail.

This particular brushpile is a tremendous oak that had been in the water since this past fall. After explaining where the perimeters of the brush were, I instructed the Smiths to cast as far as they could over the brush. "As soon as the bait touches the water, immediately close the bail on your reel. Count at the rate of one count per second (this allows your bait to fall one foot per count) until you reach 26; reel slowly and when you feel a sharp tap, set your hook, and reel your fish in."

Ben was the first to get a strike. As he was reeling in his first crappie of the day, Merwyn had a big smile on her face as her rod bent over with her first fish. Before either fish was boated, my 10-foot rod arched as another crappie struck; we had a triple on our first set of casts! We didn't catch a triple on every set of casts, but doubles were common.

This frantic action continued for the better part of an hour before it subsided. When fishing horizontally, and the bite slacks off, vertical fishing can quite often crank the action back up again. After pulling anchor, we motored over on top of the brush before anchoring again. By using two anchors, you can drastically cut down on the swaying of the boat. It was 24 feet down to the top of the brush. A bait or jig will fall vertically at the rate of 2 feet per second, so I told them to fish straight down beside the boat, and to close the bail on a count of 12.

"Make no attempt to reel upward; just slowly move your rod around until you get a strike. You might want to twitch your rod tip ever so slightly from time to time to encourage sluggish crappie to hit."

Ben caught the first fish again on this stop. Merwyn and I caught our fair share, but Ben hit a "honeyhole" up by the bow, and he wore us out. Our limit of 90 crappie didn't take long in coming. Ben outfished me that day and he won't let me forget it.

To access Big Allison Creek, use either the Allison Creek or the Ebenezer boat landings; to fish the main river, use the Ebenezer Landing.

James Covington of Rock Hill is an ardent crappie fisherman and a little cold weather doesn't keep him at home; he primarily fishes Lake Wylie.