A week of mild temperatures opened the lake completely and raised water temperatures in protected bays well into the 50°F range. In shirt-sleeve weather, we fished another bay, one that warms fast due to dark bottom sediments and shallow depths. Here, lily pads provide cover throughout, but the ravages of winter ice left only the sturdy rhizomes from which the plants grow.

Some of these root systems were as big around as baseball bats and twisted like boa constrictors. Eliminating several other cover options, we investigated the rhizomes closely. We could see big black crappies hanging under the stems, their ebony snouts tight to the musty stalks.

They were black as coal with hardly a gold fleck to their flanks. Crappies turn dark to absorb maximum sunlight. The heating process then keys their metabolism for greater feeding and quicker egg maturation.

Some anglers suppose that only spawning males turn coal black. That transformation does occur, but these early prespawn fish were of both sexes. Though we had found the fish, they weren’t so easily caught. An hour or two of altering rigs indicated that either pitching a small float and bait or dabbling with a long rod would entice bites.

The long-pole presentation was precise but spooked some fish as the boat approached, maneuvered by the trolling motor. An underhand pitch with a 7-foot spinning rig was nearly as accurate, and less alarming to the fish when rigged with a clear-plastic casting bubble set just a foot above a tiny Cubby Jig. But both methods took good numbers of beautiful crappies, many too big to keep.