Red Rock Lake's slabs are big but tough to catch. Jake Vande Noord got one! Photo courtesy of Curt Harvey.

Crappie fishing in Iowa in 2006 promises to be just as good -- or just as bad -- as it was in 2005. That means another great year of papermouth action for those who fish in the right places at the right times, and another lousy year for those who don't.

Last year, Lake Rathbun and Lake Black Hawk were two of the best places in Iowa for catching crappies, while Lake Red Rock, which for years produced consistent catches of serious barn doors, fell on its face. Will Rathbun and Black Hawk continue to satisfy anglers in 2006? Will Red Rock return, or spend another year annoying anglers who seek its legendary slabs?

Weather and water conditions will be the deciding factors. Even the best crappie lake can go "cold" after a strong front afflicts the fish with lockjaw. The secret lies in knowing which of our lakes hold the strongest populations of fish, so that when Mother Nature smiles, we can be sure that we're fishing at the venues with the most potential.

What follows is a regional look at some of Iowa's best crappie fishing opportunities for 2006.

SOUTH
Lake Rathbun, in southern Iowa near Centerville, is arguably Iowa's most famous crappie fishery, a variety of factors having combined to warrant its bearing the nickname "Iowa's crappie factory."

A large impoundment, Rathbun is fed by relatively small rivers -- the two forks of the Chariton River -- and so, unlike many of our smaller artificial lakes with outsized watersheds, isn't susceptible to flushes of muddy water after spring rains. The lake also contains a population of gizzard shad to provide optimum nutrition for crappies. Another factor that favors Rathbun's crappies is the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' program for lowering the water level in the fall and raising it in the spring, thus creating shoreline vegetation that's flooded during and after the spawn. The submerged vegetation provides food and protection for fingerling crappies and allows them to grow into the 9- to 12-inchers for which the lake is famous.

Bruce Ellison, an Iowa Department of Natural Resources fisheries technician based at Rathbun, acknowledges that while crappie fishing at the lake suffered a lull several years ago, IDNR netting and creel surveys conducted in 2005 indicate that papermouth populations have recovered.

"Crappie fishing was good for 9- to 10-inchers last year, and it should be as good or maybe better this year," he said. "We've got a couple of strong year-classes moving through the system, so things look promising for the next two or three years."

Pre-spawn finds crappies staging near deep-water dropoffs at the mouths of Crappie Cove, Honey Creek and Buck Creek. During the spawn, shallow waters in the backs of those well-known spawning areas teem with the fish.

After the spawn, Rathbun's crappies move out into the main lake and spend the summer feeding on roaming schools of gizzard shad. Ellison says that more and more crappie anglers are taking cues from walleye and white bass anglers who "complain" of catching slab crappies while trolling for 'eyes and whites.