Slab crappies are meat eaters—sure enough minnow munchers. They take artificials well at times, especially jigs—but big crappie will turn their noses at even the best of the best crappie lures.

Some 20 years ago, on any given summer day, you would've found me along the bank of a Virginia farm pond or waist-deep in the James River. More than likely, my T-shirt was balled up in the back of my ...

Spring is near, but water temperatures remain wintertime cold. Average surface water temperature at Beaver Lake is in the 40s. That means winter tactics are an angler's best bet, said Reese Jones at ...

In early winter, finding crappies is as easy as finding green aquatic vegetation. Big slabs will be right up in the greenery, where they not only find abundant foot, but cover, both for ambushing ...