It was early spring when Whup Bickley from Newberry and his friend Roger York came to Rock Hill to fish Lake Wylie with me.

The leaves were already on the trees and my spring "planting" of brushpiles had been completed about two weeks before. Crappie had found all 10 of the new brush we had put in the lake.

We loaded all our gear in my boat, and motored up the river. After anchoring fore and aft to cut down on boat sway, I explained to my guests where the perimeters of the brush were. Both men looked at me like I was "out of my gourd." How could I know where a brushpile was when there was nothing but open water out in front of us? We were a good ways from shore on the edge of a channel in Big Allison Creek.

But I rarely use buoys to mark a brushpile when fishing; enough fishermen find my brush without my having to use a blaze orange marker to show them exactly where it is. By using triangulation, you can pinpoint where to drop your anchor with accuracy within a few feet even when the boat is several hundred yards from shore.

"Cast as far as you can toward the boat dock across the river. Shut your bail as soon as your jig touches the water, and begin counting to yourself at the rate of one count for every second. When you get to 18, start slowly reeling; when you feel a light tap, set your hook, and reel the fish in," I told my fishing partners.

Chris Curtis and Donald Smith, along with the author, caught this fine stringer of crappie in Stumpy Pond; the Cedar Creek Dam is in the background. Stumpy Pond has a high population of underfished crappie. (Photo by Bennett Kirkpatrick)

After explaining what to do, I cast toward the dock. My reel handle had turned only a couple of turns when the strike occurred; upon setting the hook, a deep bow showed in my 10-foot crappie pole. After boating a nice crappie, I asked Whup to open the cooler to let me put in my fish. The lid had hardly closed when both men had fish on.

If a big smile would take you to heaven, they would already have sprouted angel wings.

South Carolina should have another banner year as far as crappie fishermen are concerned. I contacted the SCDNR's Regional Freshwater Fisheries. This is what they had to say about the waters for which they are responsible.

REGION 1
Gene Hayes, Region 1 fisheries biologist, was kind enough to rate for crappie fishing the rivers and lakes that comprise Region 1.

For anglers looking for numbers, but who are not overly concerned with size, Hayes rates Hartwell, Secession and Russell as "above-average" fisheries.

He added that Cunninghan, Robinson, Blalock and Bowen had above-average numbers, though merely average-sized fish.

Anglers who were willing to wait a bit longer for a bigger fish could try Keowee, where numbers are lower, but the size of the fish you catch is apt to be larger than average.

Clarks Hill, he said, was average to excellent, depending on the year.

And one lake -- Greenwood -- he rated as "outstanding."

Hayes went on to say angler creel surveys have been conducted in recent years on all water bodies listed except Lake Secession. His ratings come from those studies. Trap-netting has been done in Lake Greenwood and Lake Secession.