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.

Now that the long, cold winter is finally over and waters are starting to warm and take on a less desolate look, it’s time to get in some of the first good catches of crappies. With every passing year ...

For the next few weeks, crappie fishing will be a marquee attraction in the Natural State as crappie migrate to shallow water to spawn. Right now, spawn phase varies by location. Bill Eldridge of ...

Wayne Eller lives in Cambridge, Minn., and in 1999 retired as a conservation officer with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. But earlier in his outdoors career, he became fascinated — ...