As the water warms, many anglers will use a long pole with a slip-float. This tackle enables anglers to cover an area quickly and to quickly adjust the depth they're fishing. Many times, a very productive pattern, especially as you near the pre-spawn and spawn, is to fish 4 to 6 feet deep in about 8 to 10 feet of water around cover. As the spawn approaches, you can go even shallower and in the coves and creeks that may have slightly better water color. In these cases, you can go quite shallow and be very successful.

The state line runs down the center of the lake and there is often some excellent fishing on the Georgia side of the lake. Georgia and South Carolina have a reciprocal license agreement on Lake Russell. This means if you have a valid South Carolina license you can legally fish on the Georgia side of the lake. While this is a crappie fishing article, for your information, live bait will often catch a largemouth bass when crappie fishing. If you do, keep in mind that there is a 12-inch size limit on largemouth bass in the Georgia waters of the Savannah River and associated reservoirs.

Nocturnal fishing is also a good bet at Lake Russell during the entire spring. Fishing from boats along the edges of creek channels, as well as from bridges, will produce outstanding results. Some anglers will use their boats to get under the bridges along the pilings and fish around these areas.

By no means is this a rundown of all the great crappie fishing places you can enjoy in 2007.

Lake Monticello, just north of Columbia, has been enjoying some outstanding crappie fishing during the past few years. The lake seems to have escaped the attention garnered by many other lakes. Trolling multiple rods is a very productive technique at this lake. This is one of the better "sleeper" lakes in the state.

In addition, Lake Murray is enjoying a big resurgence since the lake level came back up. Fishing is expected to be outstanding there as well in 2007. Typically, the upper end of the lake will start the crappie boom early in the season and the excellent fishing progresses down the lake as the water temperature warms.

Also, Lake Moultrie has been producing some huge catches of slab crappie in recent years, with good numbers of fish reported as well. While some anglers note the numbers of crappie are not as prolific as in the past, there are still plenty of crappie, according to local anglers. Much of the fishing on this lake is along the ledges of the humps and channels where old stumprows exist and where brushpiles have been placed. When the spring spawn is underway, the fish will flood into the shallows around this large, open lake.

There's going to be outstanding crappie fishing close to about everyone in the state this spring. These lakes are certainly among those that will have great crappie fishing seasons, weather permitting. But frankly, it's hard to go wrong when crappie fishing in the Palmetto State.

Unless you just don't go. So, go now!