I checked on my crappie spots in between bass fishing today, and didn’t have a bite. Anyone know where the crappie go this time of year? Water temps were ~54 in the am and warmed up to ~61.5.

I’d like to know, I spent 5 hours this morning running around like a dummy without a single bite. Tried trees, coves, 3002 bridge. Nada.

I’d tell you but I know some people that get mad about it.

We live next door to each other. Why are you talking [censored] on the Internet?

Bridge pillars 15 to 18 feet of water! That's here in south central Texas!

My home lake doesn’t have a bridge

Try under or by docks in that depth. May look for brush piles. Water and lake conditions will play a big factor on fish locations. One thing for certain. Keep fishing and you will find them.

Big drop in water temps with this last cold spell. Fish made big moves following the bait fish. A lot of fish out in open water and moving. The fall pattern got interrupted. Try looking in deeper water for the shad and further down the lake. Or, if there are good feeder creeks with some deep holes, look there. With the mild temps all of Oct, the fall pattern was consistent; now it's interrupted. Some warm days coming next two weeks so fish may collect back in the usual spots. Best clue is find the shad concentrations. If the shad are scattered, so is everything that likes to eat them.

Fishin aholic (kid krappie) posted a limit fishing a creek in north Texas. Some most surely are moving further up the creek channels. I would try shallower than you think!

Fish the timber from mid May till mid October, it sucks for me outside of those months, so I go elsewhere. I use to catch them on the brush piles down by the Dam and State Park Cove in the winter. I can't stand just sittin for hours, and there's really only about 5 of them that I've caught fish on, so it's frustrating to drive that far for me to get there and there's already a boat on all of the good brush piles.

Fish mostly leave that timber and deeper brush in the winter. You can hunt them down in open water chasing shad though.

heres the good news, when u finally do find thier winter hangouts, they will be there most of the winter..Finding out the feed schedule then becomes the challenge.. feeds will be short and times change, but early morning late evening is always a good time to try. look for ledges near deep and shallow water. shelves with a double breakline can be great.
look for bird activity, they must eat and usually keep close tabs on the shad,, the gulls and terns will rest on banks near where they hunt for shad. look for crappie ghosting underneath pods of shad.,. when the shad pods are scattered up and down thru the water column it usually means the crappie are feeding,, the crappie can pretty much feed at will when the shad gather in large schools, they just follow them around and bust into the schools, then its over until they are hungry again,, thats why some of the heaviest fish are caught in the wintertime.,
remember this on deep lakes, most shad will go deep.. but on shallow lakes,( I call a shallow lake 24 feet or less..} they will go in the creeks...u can catch crappie in a foot of water in the wintertime on a shallow creek. try to find a spot in the creek that has a bend, with slightly deeper water,,, like 4 to 8 feet,, get a long jig pole and dip a jig just like springtime

Ask your best friend that has Livescope,...

Thank you SO much for the post. Really great advice. 🙏

Thanks to everyone else too. Really appreciate the help.

one lake I fish doesnt have a gull or tern population, but they have a nice flock of DUCKS!! these ducks sit near a dropoff on the bank.. after the game fish come thru and hammer the shad, they clean up the floaters.
attention to detail is key.. every lake is different.
this morning we didnt do well at all. with the bright moons and clear nights, fish feed heavily at night.,. when we got to the honey hole there were dead and wounded shad floating everywhere.. the fish were there, but were tough to get a bite.. sometimes the fish win, but I try to learn something every time I go. if nothing else, cruise around and find a few new piles... water temp was 62.. needs to be around 52 for the shad to go deep or shallow, and stay deep or shallow.. I will try again on the new moon cycle, and hopefully the water temp is in the low 50s.. if we get some cold nights in the 30s., the water temp will drop to the 50s.. this is the only time of year I pay attention to water temperture.
. ive heard all the myths abt spawn temps of the years and found it to be a myth. Many of the "experts" would claim 62 degrees to be the magic number,, then when they found them spawning in 52 degrees in 22 feet of water they were shocked.. more fish spawn in 6 to 22 feet of water. THAN FISH IN 1 FOOT TO 5 FEET OF WATER.. Logically there just isnt enough running feet of suitable banklines for all or even most of the crappie to spawn shallow,, also consider many other fish are spawning near the same time,, usually bass first carp, perch ect.. just imagine if fish all spawned near the same time, in the warmest water with a hard bottom,., you could go scoop them up with a scoop net there would be so many!!!!!
. the immature males caught near the banks are just a small percentage of spawners. I ve caught thousands of male crappie off the banks, and rarely ever are they over 11 inches, and super rare to get a big female full of eggs... folks just convinced themselves that the missed it when the females came in and dropped thier cargo.. ha
. I used to hear folks say that the females would come in at night on a full moon to "drop thier eggs" then leave.. its funny to me because I know , the mature females are spawning on timber, rocks, and brush in 6 to 22 feet... . I spent countless days and weeks on lakes in the spring searching out the warmest water temps,. and they simply were not there.. matter of fact they are rarely in the warmest water... they will be found in the most FERTILE water on the lake. look for the emerald green, nutrient rich water..About 6 years ago, I put this out abt water temp and spawn locations, and got alot of push back about it,, then folks started fishing earlier during spawn and saw it was true. they had just been repeating the same myths that were passed down by grandpa, and were no hearing it.. A great fisherman has more questions than answers.. after 40 years of fresh and saltwater fishing,m ive leartned plenty, most by experience, but still always want to know the WHYS..
There is a guy on this forum, was fishing a lake and beating the banks for 3 days.. couldnt find them,, water temp was 60s.. I told him forget everything u think abt spawn and go fish brushpiles in 12 to 22 feet.. well he started hammering them.. never thanked me for the info or said a word.,., its hard to eat crow when u think your great I guess.. lol .
SHAD and birds once again are your signaling clue,, shad spawn near the bank right before daybreak,, they sound like shrimp jumping around in a basket, and the water will be popping near the surface.. find these areas and the crappie wont be far away.. crappie are LAZY., OPPORTUNIST in my opinion,, they position themselves for the easiest meals, while burning the least amount of energy.. JMO.