only certain timber will hold fish, look more at the contours on the bottom of the lake than at the timber itself. timber in front of shallow coves is usually good, because at night shad go into those shallow areas to feed and the crappie follow them. isolated timber patches on points, down the side of drops, ect. timber such as BOIS DI ARC, willow, tend to grow near creeks and river banks. the old creek bed may be only 1 foot deep and the crappie are relating to that slight variation, and the trees are there and just something for the crappie to relate to. when you fish timber, think of it in timber lines, because rarely is there just a tree or 2 growing somewhere incidentally. find old creek channels that used to or still do run into the lake, and follow those creeks, you will usually find lines of timber. remember this, many lakes were raised, 8, to 20 feet many years ago due to the needs to store more water, trees grew along old banklines, back before the lake level was raised, so now there are trees along there that are submerged. those arent particularly the ones im interested in though, its the ancient ones, that grew along the sides of the old creek channels and river banks, before many of these lakes were even created, they were just creeks and rivers and those creek beds and riverbeds are the highways and byways in the world of the fishies. The old osage orager trees last a long time, they are hard as stone. study old and new maps. you may see an area that says joeblows creek, yet you look on the bank and see no creek flowing into the lake, or where one would even be, but at one times, it was there, and flowed, and trees grew near it. this is what your looking for, because fish are likely still traveling up and down the creek bed. the crappie are lazy and dont go too far from where they feed, which I believe is primarily at night. the bigger fish tend to hang on standing timber, in limited numbers, but are worth the work. sometimes pitching timber is whats needed to make them bite. I think they spook easily around timber and easing up on it with your trolling motor is a good idea. using a 10 foot pole to quickly work timber helps. so to recap, the timber growing in or alongside the old creek and river channels is what your looking for, and isolated timber on points or drop offs. this is from my perspective, there are much better timber fisherman than myself.