I've been out on the lake a few days straight and I see brush piles stacked with what I think are crappie. Depth varies from 12ft to 40ft piles. Water temp is 61 degrees. Starting at the bottom at 40ft, catfish are pulled in. Other depths or brush piles, no bites. This is on minnows and I know crappie were there 4 weeks ago. Have they moved into the creeks? Maybe they are just not biting right now?

Find the bait and the crappie will be around. At that temp creeks may be the best option.

www.woodsandwateroutdoors.com

I have been catching them in 1-3’ of water in the creeks for a few weeks now. Creek is loaded with shad. I haven’t done anything in the main body of the lake here in a couple of months so I’m not sure what’s going on out there.

Each lake can be different but the shad pulled up into the mouths of the creeks on most in late summer. Maybe a creek winter but there will always be fish in the main lake. Fish there are in transition there so they will bunch up when it starts getting really cold. Brush or no brush-find the shad and crappie will be close by.

The answer is both, I guess. Some lakes are in transition and may be spotty. I ran into some good people in the creeks that were destroying them, but we missed the bite. Going to try again another day.

Don't know what lake you're on, but Ray Roberts has stealth blue catfish....lol. They stack up on brush piles just like crappie, most are 1 to 3 lbs.

i was fishing in the creeks and only found the small ones any suggestions on how to turn them into the keepers?
1/16 lead jig with yellow/orange black speck was catching the small ones.