Another aspect of Barkley is that it is shallower than Kentucky Lake. Boaters have to be more vigilant for stumps and flats. It's rather challenging to walk back to the ramp after your lower unit has been trashed on a stump.

Birdsong, Harmon, Leatherwood, Eagle and all the larger creek embayments have the best crappie populations on Kentucky Lake. On Lake Barkley, you'll find plenty of crappie in the backwaters between Bumpus Mills and Dover, with Saline, Blue and Dyers creeks worth attention.

Broadbent said that all the guides he's talked with have been happy with size and number of fish they've caught from these lakes. There is no problem with fish health on any of the reservoirs in West Tennessee.

One of the best crappie holes in the spring is around the brush-covered islands near Dover on Lake Barkley. Working the bushes is as close to a sure thing as I've ever seen in crappie fishing. If you want to catch crappie deep in the heart of the bushes, here are the steps:

Start at the mouth of a cove within an island and keep moving until you fish all the bushes. Dunk a minnow at the base of the bushes near you and then those farther back. When you catch a fish, stop and give the area a thorough going over. It seems crappie like to be close to one another, so where you catch one, you should catch others.

The hard part is sticking your poles in the bushes without knocking your minnow off or snagging on a limb. This is where the slip-bobber method comes in. You keep your minnow, hook, weight and bobber very close together as a single unit on your line, stick your pole through the bushes and release your line so the unit falls on target.

To make this unit, place your bobber stop at the depth you want to fish. Six to 12 inches is usually deep enough, but it depends on how flooded the bushes are.

Once the stop is in place, slide on the bobber. Next, put on your 1/8-ounce conical slip-sinker and crimp a split shot about 3 inches above your hook. The split shot keeps the slip-sinker on your hook.

Use a light wire hook for fishing the bushes because eventually you are going to snag. A light wire hook will bend before it breaks your line, provided your line is 8-pound-test or stronger. A No. 2 to 2/0 hook is a popular size.

Now you have a slip-bobber resting against the slip-sinker against a split shot and your baited hook, all in the space of a few inches. This compact unit is easier to thread through the limbs without snagging. When you release your line, the unit drops to the water and separates with your minnow swimming on a short leash at the base of the bush.

With this method, you may find what others have discovered: The biggest crappie seem to be in the back of the bushes, the hardest to reach places. When you are working the bushes in the back or have threaded your pole among the limbs, you soon discover you can't set your hook in the usual jerk and lift. There is usually very little room to lift your pole. Of course, it's a natural reflex to lift the rod, but that can get you in trouble. The remedy for this is setting your hook while leaving your pole in position and quickly reeling in or you can pull the line in front of the reel with your free hand to set the hook.

Sometimes getting the hooked crappie out of the bush can be difficult, especially if you have reached way back to a nearly inaccessible spot, but this is a nice problem to have.

MIDDLE TENNESSEE: REGION II
"The best crappie population in Middle Tennessee is probably in Percy Priest Lake," Wilson said, "but I'd have to rate it about average for 2007."

Priest is nutrient rich and has good cover. That's a prime criterion for good crappie fishing.