In days gone by, crappie fishing was a springtime-only event. Crappie would move into the shallows to spawn and anglers would fill their livewells and freezers for a couple of months of the year, and then resume other activities. With the advances in technology and a better understanding of crappie patterns throughout the year, anglers now fish for crappie 12 months a year using advanced sonar and fishing tactics that leave crappie few hiding places.

Amidst fears of overharvest, South Carolina followed the example of several other Southern states last summer by imposing minimum harvest sizes (and a reduced creel limit specifically for Lake Murray). Many anglers applaud the move as a step in the right direction and would like to see more conservation efforts on the state's other crappie venues. A survey of state fisheries biologists and local anglers revealed some surprising and some not so surprising comments about the current and future status of crappie fishing in South Carolina. Here's what the experts had to say:

REGION 1
Covering the Savannah chain of lakes as well as lakes Keowee and Greenwood, regional biologist Dan Rankin has some of the best crappie waters in the state under his jurisdiction.

In Lake Keowee, just north of Seneca, the number of crappie in the lake have steadily declined over the years because of the unauthorized introduction of spotted bass in the deep, clear reservoir.

"Keowee has never been considered much of a crappie lake," said Rankin. "It doesn't have a lot of nutrients coming into the lake, and the fertility has declined since it was impounded. The crappie that are there are more abundant in the upper tributaries like Cane Creek, Stamp Creek, Little River and Crowe Creek. The good news is that what crappie are there are typically bigger fish that exceed 10 inches."

"Most people don't think of Keowee as a crappie lake," said Alex Orr, a state park ranger at Oconee State Park and avid crappie angler, "but there's some really good crappie in Keowee if you know where to find them and how to catch them."

During the summer of 2009, South Carolina emerged from a three-year drought that severely affected upstate lakes on the Savannah chain. Fortunately, the lake levels on Russell were kept relatively constant because of the height of the water intake at the Russell dam. "We would expect a little better spawning success on Russell because the water levels didn't go as low as they did on Hartwell or Thurmond," said Rankin. "In fact, water levels were coming up during the spring on all those lakes, which is much better for them than a declining level. Hopefully, the levels will remain high for 2010, and I would expect that spawning success would be really good given the grasses and shrubs that grew up in the shallows while the lakes were down."

Always a solid crappie fishery, Lake Greenwood was last sampled during 2009 and biologists are still digesting that data. According to Rankin, there is much angler concern about overharvest given the popularity of Greenwood.

"Greenwood definitely gets more crappie angling pressure in angler hours per acre than any lake in the state," said Rankin. "This is one lake where angler harvest exceeds natural mortality, and ideally we'd like to see some adjustments in regulations to reduce the creel limit and have a minimum harvest size."

"This past year was the best crappie fishing I've ever seen at Lake Greenwood," said local angler and Fish Stalker Lures owner Tom Mundy. "I look for it to be that much better this year in both size and numbers of crappie, but I'm afraid that drop in the creel limit at Murray is going to bring a lot of guys up here that want those 10 more fish. I wish the DNR would put the same limits on Greenwood and all these other lakes that get fished so hard as they have on Murray."