The favorite technique is to use live minnows with either a cork rigged a few feet above the minnow or, for fishing deeper water, a tight-line approach.

Even as early as February and right on throughout the spring, McGowan noted that there is excellent fishing around many of the bridges on the lake, both day and night.

"Probably one of the most popular is the Rabon Creek Bridge. Some days, and at night, fishermen will be fishing almost shoulder-to-shoulder catching limits of crappie," he said. "It is absolutely amazing to me how many crappie this lake produces. Plus, the size of the crappie remains excellent as well. It's hard to imagine a better crappie fishing lake in the state, especially during the February through April time period."

McGowan noted that even if anglers do not have a boat, they can fish from the bridges using lanterns at night, and can fish effectively from the shoreline in some places, to make excellent catches. Of course, fishermen with boats are more mobile and can try many different places if they need to. But the point is if you don't have a boat, you can still catch crappie at this lake.

As the fish enter the post-spawn period, they will briefly return to the pre-spawn areas and stage for a while. Then they will return to their deep-water haunts. However, even in deep water, they still eat and therefore are still available for good fishing, and night-fishing in the late spring and early summer continues to be very productive.

The Reedy River and Saluda River arms of the lake are great places for crappie on this Greenwood. In fact, most of creeks and coves will produce outstanding results through the spring season. The Greenwood State Park area, with an abundance of creeks and coves on both sides of the lake, is also known as an outstanding crappie-producing area.

There are numerous boat-launching facilities on the lake making access to any section of the lake easy.

LAKE RICHARD B. RUSSELL
Lake Russell, located on the Savannah River chain of lakes, is particularly well known for its crappie production. One of the key features that make this lake so good for crappie is its abundance of woody cover throughout the lake. Plus, the water depths are good and the annual lake fluctuation (barring unusual weather patterns, of course) is much less than Lake Hartwell upstream and Clarks Hill Lake downstream.

Many crappie fishermen have the same question as I did the first time I fished the lake for crappie: Where do you start with all this obvious woody cover to fish?

The key is, as it usually is for good crappie fishing, is what lies underneath the water's surface. Specifically, I'm referring to drops or ledges, creek channels, points, humps and other bottom contour changes.

With so much woody cover, unless you employ the underwater contours to your advantage, you will be hard-pressed to find a repeatable pattern on this lake. This can be particularly true during the spring when water and weather conditions are changing and the fishing pattern changes as we go through the early cold-weather fishing season, pre-spawn, spawn and post-spawn.

A pattern used by many anglers in the early season, or when a cold front pushes the spring migration back, is to fish minnows vertically alongside the standing timber in deep water. Usually the trees along the channel drops are ideal and you can change the bottom depth quickly by moving only short distances. When you connect on a productive depth pattern, you can quickly move around catching fish from similar spots.

While many anglers have their favored areas, the many parts of this lake will produce excellent results throughout the spring. One of the keys that local anglers have shared with me is to keep on the move, working different depths and different forms of cover until you connect. Most agree that once you identify a productive pattern, odds are great you can consistently catch fish repeating the process in similar areas.