Most crappie fishermen leave here elated, or at least pleased. Onepound fish are plentiful, and ''slabs'' of 2 pounds and up are common. April is traditionally the peak month for crappie. That's when the water temperature hits 61-62 degrees, sending the fish into shallow water to spawn and making them easy to find. It's a time when boats seem to line the banks.
Anglers arrive in droves and leave with ice chests packed with tasty white fillets.
But Dolack and I weren't looking for breeding crappie. As we left the Irvin Cobb Marina at sunrise, a misty fog hung over the mirror-smooth water. The thermometer said 25 degrees, and the water temperature hovered just under 50. ''I'll say it will be tough today,'' Dolack said as we idled through the no-wake zone and into Blood River, a major tributary that's been a consistent crappie producer since Kentucky Lake was impounded more than 50 years ago. The previous day he and two clients had put 19 fish on ice. We cleared the no-wake zone, and Dolack opened the throttle on the 21foot Triton, plunging the wind chill to single digits.