Slab crappies are meat eaters—sure enough minnow munchers. They take artificials well at times, especially jigs—but big crappie will turn their noses at even the best of the best crappie lures.

Heritage and legacies run deep in small coal towns. Some are buried beneath streets, sidewalks and homes in mines where men and boys toiled for endless hours in dark and dank conditions. Others rise ...