It was the biggest crappie I had ever seen: A silvery, black-spotted slab my cousin, Brad, pulled out of a freeway lake near Kalama, Wash. That was almost 30 years ago. I still haven’t laid eyes on a ...

In early winter, finding crappies is as easy as finding green aquatic vegetation. Big slabs will be right up in the greenery, where they not only find abundant foot, but cover, both for ambushing ...