If you wait for the peak of spawning in March to go crappie fishing, you are missing out on some of the best fishing of the year, especially for big fish.

Clarks Hill, a 71,000-acre reservoir on the Savannah River, offers great crappie fishing. There are many creeks and smaller rivers entering this huge lake that run in different directions, so you can always find a place to get out of the February winds, and you can find just about any water clarity you want to fish.

Rod Wall grew up and still lives near the lake in Ninety Six, South Carolina. He has a place on the South Carolina Little River arm of the lake, and he builds docks and seawalls on Lake Greenwood and Clarks Hill. All his life he has been fishing Clarks Hill for crappie.

About six years ago, Rod started fishing crappie tournaments. He set small goals, first trying to catch a limit in each tournament, then to place. Now his goal is to win. Rod does well on the Crappiemasters,...