During early May, various species of minnows swarm into bays off the main river. In the afternoon as sunlight warms the water, some crappies leave the pool below the dam to take advantage of minnows concentrating in bays, shoreline cuts, and areas where the flowage widens. “Surface waters are warmer in those bays, attracting more baitfish,” Kolbeck says. “Crappies tend to suspend high in areas out of the current, to take advantage of the warmer surface water. If the water in the main channel is 50°F, the surface of bays may be 65°F, and crappie activity increases proportionally. These bays may be 10 feet at the deepest point. Some crappies suspend in open water while others hole up in tall woodcover.”

Bays might be inlet areas for feeder creeks, but one of the principle keys to finding the right bay is to seek spots without current. Bays with running creeks don’t warm as fast and may have substantial current, which crappies try to avoid at this time. Prime bays tend to be off the main channel, according to Kolbeck. But he also likes areas where bays create wide, slow, current seams well offshore. “At some point, the still water of the bay meets the current of the main channel, and it could be a mile from shore,” he adds. “Crappies scatter along that current edge throughout May.

“The exact location of a current seam varies from day to day, especially when water levels fluctuate. The best way to find it is with a bobber. A current edge can be 40 feet wide or very difficult to find. Just prospect with a jig and a bobber until the bobber begins to ride slowly downriver. The best spots are where the mouth of a bay narrows the channel against the far shore, while the land point of the bay blocks the flow over a large area behind it. The river wants to flow straight and the channel being created is narrow, focusing the current, with a big nothing pancake bay on the side of the flowage opposite the channel.

“Just fish toward the channel until you find current. It’s like fishing by the dam, except that current seams by the dam are easier to find visually. In June, crappies move into side bays and hold around stumpfields in 7 feet of water. Apparently they spawn in there because it’s completely out of the current, and the water is in that prime temperature range of 64°F to 70°F. I think they spawn at night and leave soon afterwards.

“In July and August,” says Kolbeck, “crappies don’t seem to bite as well, but I can find them in eddies on the edge of current seams off the main flow. Wood may improve a spot, but an eddy is a more important element of crappie location during summer. A current break off a shoreline point, a giant boulder, a bridge abutment, or anything that creates an eddy, becomes critical. And if you find one crappie in summer, you find a bunch. In fall, they return to their backwater wintering areas and stay until they move to islands in the main channel the following spring.”