For what it's worth, I think the first wave of spawners may be earlier this year.The big black crappie I've been on have have already moved somewhere else,last year they moved out the last week of February.

Whatever you do, don't bother fishing near shallow rocks. we have not caught any there with all the sun and warmer weather heating the rocks up very quickly.

One thing is for sure... crappie are there to be found in shallow water before you think they will be. It only takes a warm day or two with good sunshine to send them screaming into shallow water. Don't wait until mid lake temp is at 50-55 degrees. The sunny coves will be warm well before that. By the time you hear good numbers of people talking about catching shallow fish, you may have missed some of the best of it.

I caught all my spawners deep the last couple of years. Really deep.

March 15th for me in the creeks

I apologize for that then. I just remember the snow storm and remember the water being very very cold around that time.

Okay, so when I caught these crappie me and my brother went back the next day hammered them again, we didn't go back for another couple of days, but when we did go back we were catching a lot of small crappie. Has anyone experienced this beforre? Were catching 12"-14" crappie mainly all 12 but then we could not catch anything over 7-9 inches. They were all mostly females we were caching, the male ration was very small, even when initially catching them. We didn't really try any other spots since school kept us busy. After that but man it was the most fun we had. Now that we have a boat again I hope to do awhole lot better. Ahh I can't wait to see my float twitch/sink!!!!!

When looking for new possible spots, what are your personal requirements that the spot must meet in order to even consider fishing it?