I have fished at penny's bend numerous times (close to where I grew up) and it is a lot of fun but when the white bass and crappie are biting you can hardly find a place to cast without everybody crossing your line and standing right next to you if you seem to have the luck.
I like to hike up the river a little ways and find a cozy cove to myself.
Another good place to launch a little john boat or something is in treyburn corporate. That may be the stagecoach rd your talking about, I don't know the name but it has a boat ramp and I've heard that if you load your boat, head left around the bend then you will find the fish.
I'm trying to figure out if I will be able to get out there this year. I'm sure I'll find a way to sneak over there sometime. I miss the fact that it was 5 minutes down the road and now it is about an hour away.
FYI, we used to always use a unweighted cork and anywhere from 2 to 6 inches down use a small jig head hook with a white or chartruese curly tail worm. The crappie would bite really soft and so when the unweighted cork would wiggle you probably had a bite.
Good luck!