Crappie picks like Boone and Fort Loudoun reservoirs are far and few between. If you're willing to put in a little time on the water, you can boat plenty of eating-sized crappie along with a few topping 12 inches or better.

In recent years, the crappie angling has improved considerably in Boone, and in Fort Loudoun, the crappie fishing has always been excellent.

In the 1990s, the Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency took special notice of Boone's fertile water and decided to maximize the reservoir's potential. A 10-inch minimum size restriction and a 15-fish limit were adopted for crappie and the fisheries improved markedly. The TWRA stocked 300,000 crappie during those years to make them even better.

Once a yawner, Boone now boasts an excellent crappie fishery and anglers take home thousands of crappie every year.

"Boone is small compared with other reservoirs, but it does have a fair population of crappie," said Doug Peterson, a Region IV TWRA fisheries biologist. "For an eastern Tennessee water, it has a good population of black crappie along with plenty of whites. Fort Loudoun has both blacks and whites with the whites predominating."

In the early spring, crappie begin moving into shallow shoreline cover in Boone and Fort Loudoun to spawn. As the water begins warming into the 58- to 70-degree range, crappie start holding on shallow cover near deeper water. They make feeding forays into the shallows to look for minnows drawn to the sun-warmed weeds, flooded shoreline vegetation, rocks and woody cover. The males fan out saucer-shaped nests at the base of emerging vegetation and woody cover, and the females then move in.

"By the end of April, the peak of the spawn is over, though some fish may still be spawning by the first week of May. By May, crappie will be in the back of coves around fallen treetops and brush," Peterson said.

Once you locate them, springtime crappie in both lakes are easily caught. Start checking for active fish around flooded brush, downed trees and by docks that are located near deep water. Spawning commonly takes place up in the backs of coves where there is some protection from wave and wind action and where cover such as flooded shoreline brush, emerging plants, sunken logs, blowdowns and docks can be found.

Old creek channels and other distinct bottom structure act as crappie corridors up into the shallows. If you can find flats in the coves and in the backs of bays with good cover and deeper water within 20 or 30 yards, you're likely going to find the biggest crappie in the lake.

Biologists have installed a variety of fish attractors in both lakes. Brushpiles and stakebeds especially attract crappie that are naturally drawn to woody cover.

Getting back into the coves where the sun is warming the water near cover is key.

"I'd suggest the streams, especially Boone's Creek, Beaver Creek and White's Branch on Boone. Stay off the channels in Boone because both have cold water flowing into them," Peterson said.

Fort Loudoun has its own share of early-season crappie hotspots, according to Peterson.