Hillsdale, Marion and Toronto are three Kansas reservoirs that papermouth fans perennially think of as offering good crappie fishing. Big Hill and Fall River tend to be viewed more as good bass lakes, but the surveys conducted by Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks biologists last year suggest both will be really good for crappie this season.

State fishing lakes that should be good this month include Goodman and Scott, in western Kansas, and, in the east, Geary and Neosho. Research also shows that Neosho is one of the SFLs that will give Sunflower State anglers some good action for black crappie. The others include Miami and Brown in eastern Kansas, and Kingman in the south-central part of the state.

Some good community waters beckon to crappie fans: Carbondale City Lake East, Eureka City Lake, Marion County Lake and Sedan City Lake. Keep them in mind as you plan your outing this month.

Now, the lists above suggest something else that you might face when you head out over the next few weeks: visiting a lake for the first time because the crappie fishing is supposed to be good. A number of lakes noted above may be new water to crappie anglers who've spent season after season at Clinton, Perry, Pomona, Melvern and other Kansas waters. So here's how you find the crappie at a lake you're visiting for the first time.

Do you have a favorite Kansas crappie lake? The pattern that biologist Kyle Austin outlines should apply no matter where you fish.

If at all possible, spend some time in advance scanning lake maps for likely spawning areas. Find places on those maps that resemble the spots at your favorite venues that have produced year in and year out. Then, using the formula explained earlier, search for structure nearby in deeper water; those are the places you should check out first, as they're very likely to hold plenty of fish.

"That's another thing about crappie," Austin said. "You don't find stragglers . . . one here and one there. When you catch a crappie, you can pretty much be certain that there are plenty more in the area. You just have to fish thoroughly for them and know that they may not be as aggressive as you'd prefer."

Nothing beats a minnow-tipped jig for this kind of fishing. "Yeah, it's pretty simple," Austin concurred. "It's hard to beat a minnow on a jig when you're fishing like this -- especially if the fish are neutral to negative.

"For one thing, they are going to hit really lightly; a lot of times you won't even feel the strike. When you use live bait, you're improving your odds of hooking fish, because crappie are going to hold on to that minnow longer than they would a jig with a plastic body on it."