"Lake Bigeaux gets to 15 to 20 feet deep in places," said Dan Thornton of M&M Fishing Center in Breaux Bridge. "Lake Pelba and Opelousas Bay also have some deep water. The Interstate Canal is about 20 feet deep. Some other canals run up to 12 feet deep. Henderson has a big shad base."

Toledo Bend Reservoir
Even in such a massive system as Toledo Bend, anglers can find many places where they can tempt crappie with tiny flies, hair jigs or tubes. Toledo Bend Reservoir runs about 65 miles along the Louisiana-Texas line. The massive reservoir sprawls over 186,000 acres and creates numerous creek arms and coves offering more than 1,265 miles of shoreline. Anglers can get into many coves, where they find flooded timber or stumps that hold spawning crappie.

"Crappie fishing on Toledo Bend is excellent," said Ricky Yeldell, an LDWF biologist. "The lake has both black and white crappie, but black crappie are more common. People can catch 50 to 80 crappie in a half-day. Most will (weigh) about 3/4 to 1 pound, but some will be in the 1.5- to 2-pound range. Occasionally, people catch some crappie over 3 pounds."

Jodie E. Crouch Jr. holds the state record for black crappie with a 3.55-pound slab he pulled from Toledo Bend on March 18, 2003. The lake's record black crappie actually weighed 3.69 pounds. Fritz Gowan landed the 17.75-inch lunker on Jan. 17, 1985, but weighed it in Texas where it holds that state title. Another Texan, Geneva Daniels, holds the white crappie lake record with a 17.25-inch fish that weighed 2.88 pounds. Each year, people catch potential record-book fish, but fail to weigh them officially.

Eastern Louisiana
In eastern Louisiana, the Manchac region near Lake Maurepas contains many acres of cypresses that could hold big crappie. Manchac means "back door" in the language of the Choctaws, for whom the area was exactly that with respect to the settlements at New Orleans and Baton Rouge and in the interior. Pass Manchac connects Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Maurepas. The smaller North Pass also connects the lakes. Despite sitting between the two major metropolitan areas of Louisiana, Lake Maurepas remains largely undeveloped, with no roads touching its cypress-lined shorelines or boat ramps launching directly into the lake.

The same's not true for several major rivers feeding the system: The Blind, Amite and Tickfaw rivers empty directly into Lake Maurepas, and the Natalbany and Blood rivers empty into the Tickfaw River. Farther east, the Tchefuncte and Tangipahoa rivers feed into Lake Pontchartrain, while Bedico Creek flows into the Tangipahoa River. Several canals link the rivers. Anglers can find many places at which to dangle flies among the many cypress and gum trees growing throughout this area.

Many canals in the swamps near the Lac des Allemands system close to Thibodaux also hold big crappie. In fact, Lettie Robertson caught a 6-pound mixed crappie in the Westwego Canal just east of Lac des Allemands in 1969. An intricate network of bayous and canals connects Lac des Allemands, Lake Boeuf, Lake Salvador, Lake Cataouatche and the Bayou Segnette system southwest of New Orleans. This maze of cypress swamps, canals and bayous loaded with stumps, brushtops, fallen trees and grass mats offers anglers plenty of places to tempt slab crappie.

* * * This spring, anglers might need to think small to entice the biggest crappie -- and sometimes, just a little hair on a tiny hook works wonders.