You are sitting on top of a gold mine when it come to good numbers of quality fish. I'll do the best I can to break it down for you:
Winter:
Concentrate on the drop offs of bridges and creek channels, fishing close to the bottom under heavy bait concentrations. Dead sticking around the dam is also productive this time of year, but don't expect it to be fast and furious. There are several lake is east Texas where winter time is the best for crappie, in my experience, Cedar Creek crappie during the cold months (mid December through mid February) are inconsistent.
Early Spring
The spawn starts early in these parts. When the bridges at the north end stat looking like lantern clad villages, it's a good time to start looking shallow. If you follow the instructions of biologist, or the old timers talking about the dogwoods blooming, you're going to miss several good weeks of shallow water fishing. The fish will start moving towards their breeding grounds at 55-57 degrees, which usually takes place around mid February.
As the water approaches 59-60 degrees, it's in full swing. Do not stop fishing shallow water structure until you find fish. Move very quickly until you get bit, focusing on water from 2-6ft at daylight and dusk, and 8-12ft during the mid day. The further north you are on the lake, the more shallow the fish will be.
Late Spring:
Shift your focus to brush piles and docks. If you've never shot docks, now is a good time to practice your skills. There are plenty of you tube videos on the art, so I'll save you the long explanation, but it's an essential skill for the second half of the spawn, and will treat you very well until the water climbs into the 80s.
Brush piles in the 8-15ft range are your friend this time of year, and now is a great time to either find a few, or better yet, sink some of your own. When I left Cedar Creek, we had over 3000 piles marked, all of which held crappie at some point in time. Do the legwork now so you can have fun when the fish are biting.
Summer:
Sometime in early June the fish will start targeting the fry that have hatched from that year's spawn. It's time to downsize your bait. I prefer something under 1.5", but that's just me. You will also want to change your depth. You best bite will often be found in 15-25 feet, with fish holding shallower on darker days.
Late Summer:
As the water climbs into the high 80s-low 90s, you're going to be shoveling through some dinks, but if you fish aggressively and have plenty of brush piles, you can still put a decent mess together. Each spot will typically yield 1-3 keepers in the first couple of minutes, then it's time to move. I will generally fish structure in the same depth that I do in the early summer, but won't catch nearly the number of fish.
Fall:
Cedar Creek is arguably the best fishery in the state during the month of October. If you find a pile of brush, fish it. Depth typically doesn't matter this time of year, especially toward the later part of the month when the fishing just gets plain silly. It's not uncommon for guides to put limits in the boat every single day this time of year.
As November rolls through, the big girls really start to feed heavily, primarily when the water temp is in the mid sixties to low sixties. I continue to focus on structure throughout the lake, fishing as shallow as 6-8ft. The water temp at this time of year is the same during the spawn, so don't be scared to go into that six foot to eight foot range. I wouldn't pass up a good dock, either...
May I also suggest you take a ride with Chuck Rollins at BigCrappie.com, he's a pretty good guy from what I hear and you're going to see him a lot when you're on the water.
As far as your bait selection goes, confidence is key. The three color combos below paid my bills on Cedar Creek for many years. The dark bait is good for cloudy days, the bottom is good for sunny days. Chartreuse is chartreuse...
gregg, and thanks lane
