I’m new to crappie so please forgive my ignorance. In a lake with tons of visible trees at various depths, do y’all still just scan for brush piles or fish the visible trees too? Yesterday I wasted a bunch of time fishing visible trees but then found a brush pile no where near the visible stuff and it had a bunch on it. Seeing a lake loaded with visible trees is confusing me.

Second, I’ve never minner fished for crappie, is it better as far as catching, and how do you rig them, just put a minner on a bare jig head?

Last, what is a typical fall pattern for crappie, going deeper?

We scan both the trees, and for brushpiles. For trees, look for the horizontal branches, or trees that have fallen over in the depth you find fish. Some with Livescope scan the trees and look for the isolated big fish.

Sometimes its jigs, and sometimes its minners. No rhyme or reason, just some days they like one over another. You can use a bare Aberdeen hook or a jighead, with or without a jig body...even cut minners work.

Early fall pattern should find fish moving back into the creeks following the shad.

Exactly,...sometimes I'll take 2-3 hours and do just "recon" for spots to fish. I dont like to go into thick places with tons of visible trees, but I will look
at the edges. Maybe going back into areas maybe 2-3 trees deep at the depth I wanna fish. I think someone laying brushpiles doesnt want them to
be too hard to get to. I look at an area an think where would I put a brushpile,...not too easy, but not too hard to get to.
Minnows on a jighead works fine, hook them under the lips and out the head. Enjoy

Appreciate the info!

Once I find Crappie on a brushpile "at a certain depth" then I look for other cover at that depth of water or slightly deeper.

Lots of trees above the surface of the water aren't valuable, the edges maybe. But the depth of the fish will usually be routine in a given day.