Okay, I bass fish once or twice a week, I don't eat much fish so I've never been interested in crappie fishing. MY wife loves fish and I mentioned to her one time the crappie are suppose to be good eating, now she is demanding a trip this weekend!

Any help is appreciated. I had to maneuver around all the boat last weekend on the north end in the boat run/river...look pretty self explanatory that the crappie are in the river. Should I just drive the river and use my SI/DI to find a brush pile and sit on it? Jigs or live bait? Time of day? It's going to be cold this weekend but will that turn the crappie off like the bass?

Trying to gather info and make an educated guess at it this weekend. Thank you.

Minnows trolled along the river channel should get you bit. They are not necessarily relating to any brush this time of year.

look on TPWD page , they had lots cover piles of plastic pipe and tire put out, the coordinates are listed on the home page or some instruction you can locate them.

I've been fishing the south end and 17 to 18 ft is the main depth even on brush as deep as 24' the fish are holding about 18'. I don't know about minnows I only use jigs and the last time out Bone head stump bugs in Palestine special was the preferred bait.

Get ready to give up bass fishing, once she gets a taste of them crappie shes not gonna want anything else!

I don't get to fish LOP often but I'm still catching on brush piles on other lakes that I fish. Hopefully, before long the crappie will move into open water down close to the dam and then you can drift fish for them. I wouldn't pass up any brush piles in the 20 ft. depth range right now.

The colder the better this time of year at LOP. The armada of boats gathered together out there this time of year will basically tell you where to fish. Remember you have to keep your first 25 this time of year on that lake.

By the weather forecast out that way my guess is they're headed deep. Nighttime temps in the 20s tonight and staying in the 30s at night and 50s in the daytime should do it. The colder it gets the more the fish bunch up and the easier they get to catch. Use your graph to find shad in 25-40' deep, usually on humps and small drop offs, the crappie and yellow bass will be there with the shad.

Warning: Don't throw the yellows toward the Loons. They won't leave you alone the rest of the day if you do. Good luck.

Charlie Brewer introduced his Slider worm technique decades ago and basically it consists of using light jigheads and short plastics either mid-depth or right on the bottom. He caught all fish species in many lakes and rivers around the country and challenged anyone to outfish him using light tackle. As for myself, cold water is no obstacle to catching fish - especially panfish such as crappie, yellow and white perch and sunfish. The bump on the line may be a bit lighter than in warmer water, but even with 35' casts, it can be felt and the hook set.

Equipment I would suggest:
1/32 and 1/16 oz unpainted ballhead jigs
soft plastic 1"-2" long (you could even use 1.5" of the tail end of a finesse worm
8-10 # test braid with a 1.5' leader of 4 or 6# test fluorocarbon

Use your sonar to find fish and bottom structure. I move the boat 20 feet, fish around it until I find fish and then anchor if I connect. Once I catch fish, I note the depth and continue the stop-and-fish method. I try fishing shallow and deeper, never assuming fish are only shallow or deep.

When it comes to finesse fishing, slow and unsteady retrieves get fish irritated enough to strike those small baits of which there are many shapes and actions. Straight tails plastics do better IMO than curl tail or shad tail grubs because even a do-nothing retrieve imparts subtle actions to the lure that fish notice and keep track of while in the strike zone.

I don't count on fish being in the same area day after day, week after week, but when found, the same locations may hold fish on consecutive days.

Fish location is everything; slow retrieves at the right depth using small lures puts the odds of catching them in your favor.
Oh, and one thing I forgot to mention: the above catches anything with fins that swims.

Nice write up senko

What knots work best on your floro leader to the jig head?

Yea you can't miss the small village of boats drift fishing near the dam this time of year. I was bass fishing the first time I saw all the boats out there and quickly realized I was going after the wrong fish for the time of year.