“If the water is discolored or we have cloud cover, I reach all around the brushpile with a long, 12-foot jigging pole. With a 1/32- or 1/16-ounce jig fished vertically on 4- to 6-pound line, I touch-lift and finesse that jig all around the brushpile. I use B&M poles and little Mitchell Spider Mite reels.

“For vertically fishing in deep water, I don’t use a long pole,” says Holmes. “I don’t tip with bait, either. I use dyed kip tails [calf tails], which have a lustrous effect in the water, or I tip with plastic tubes. Lacking wind and if the water’s clear, I pitch jigs because the crappies will be spooky. I suggest little fiberguard jigs, and I trim the fibers. I use an 8-foot Classic, a spinning rod especially designed by B&M for vertical fishing. Best way to figure out depth is to use rod length for the first 8 feet, so you can always strip line off the reel in 2- or 3-foot lengths to figure out precisely how deep you’re fishing. You want to know exactly where you are in terms of depth around a brushpile, because biting crappies tend to be at the same level most of the time.

“I go over the top of the brushpile first and read it, so I know what depth to start. If I don’t have to penetrate it, I don’t. When crappies suspend over the brush, I note their depth and measure my line accordingly.

“Scatter brushpiles in slightly different depths,” Holmes suggests. “That way you’re covered when water levels fluctuate. And place brushpiles so you always have somewhere to fish out of the wind. Make sure a few are protected from the west, some from the north, and so on; so that no matter which direction the wind blows, you’ll have protected brushpiles.” (Not that crappies won’t be out there when the wind blows, but it’s difficult to maintain position and vertically finesse jigs through brush in wind and waves.)

“Dropping brushpiles will teach you more about a lake or reservoir than you otherwise could learn,” he says. “While using good electronics in the search for existing brush or new drop sites, you’re going to find old roadbeds, ditches with fence rows, stumps, channels, and other key elements that aren’t on the map. Diligence never hurts.”