I'm a newcomer myself in that area but have absolutely fallen in love with it, though being in western NC I don't get down there more than several times a year. Inkdabber has been a great source of info. Frankly, crappie have been a mystery to me. I'd like nothing more than figure out how to find some but they've whipped me so far. We went for shellcrackers on the full moon at the end of April this year, supposed to be prime time. Caught only a handful of keepers but they weren't just picking on us.
We went down this weekend last year with kayaks and paddled back in the swamp and tore up the bedding bream, with a few shellcrackers and catfish thrown in. I've been back several times and caught catfish up to 26 pounds, and couldn't find a bream other than a few dinks.
So, I'm not the best resource for fishing info, again follow Inkdabbers advice above.

But from a newcomer's perspective and don't know if this is helpful or not and again, I'm not the one to look for advice:

*Inkdabber ain't kidding with the "numerous targets". It's easy to get overwhelmed and not know where to even start. ALL the water looks good and fishy. But by prospecting different areas with worms and crickets on a rod and slip cork you can cover some water till you find them. Pay attention to your nose, sometimes you can smell a bed.

*Use your rod of choice but when hunting 'em I like to use an 11 ft. BnM jigging pole, with a slip bobber, split shot and #4 hook. A lot of people use bream buster poles. Long rods are handy when prospecting. And in lily pads, you can reach out drop it down in holes. If you get in thick cypress typical casting can be frustrating with all the overhanging limbs.

*The area isn't known as the "Stumphole" for no reason. There's 10,000,000 stumps just under the water and it's easy to damage your boat or motor, be careful.

*Watch for gators and snakes. We've seen some big gators. They don't much worry me, it's what you don't see that worries me. I've been warned about the snakes and wasps. Knock on wood, I've run across neither one...yet.

*Last year at this time we started the first day in Poplar Creek and caught a few around lily pads but it was pretty slow. Then we went to Stumphole and kept looking for bream and poking around. I kept telling my buddy, the water was too deep. A lot of the swamp seems to be 6-9 ft. deep (Or it was last year but we were told the water was pretty high) I don't know much but I do know panfish don't spawn in 8' deep water. We kept looking until we found shallower water & stumbled into a huge bream bed. IIRC it was about 2-3 ft. deep.

*Keep looking. I've found bedding bream to be pretty aggressive. If you drop a cricket or worm and don't get bit pretty soon, move to another area.

*Lastly, it's a beautiful place and a unique ecosystem. There is an incredible amount of wildlife back in there. But there's a lot of swamp and it all looks the same. Pay attention to which way is home!


edit to add. If you start filling the cooler expect to have some company close by quickly. I think some people "fish" with binoculars first when deciding WHERE to fish. LOL!