I've been bouncing around a few creeks on the same lake and can't understand why I can find em in one creek but another creek with pretty much the same layout has squat. All things being basically equal from what I can see, what makes crappie pick one creek over the other?

No idea here, but great post & sub'd for replies.
I would guess maybe better underwater structure in one creek vs the other & hard or soft bottom being the biggest contributor possibly?

That is the million dollar question. I have come to the conclusion that the difference is something small and that we may not notice but the fish do.

It be like that sometimes.

Makes you wonder sometimes.

Fished a lake this weekend that has 1000's of docks on it. One stretch had about 15 docks on it with the same depth and bank transition. Nothing under any of the docks except one that was in the middle. Now that dock was loaded. School of fish that went from 10' down to 35' and was 30' across. Was one of the biggest schools of fish i have seen with the scope. Had 2 limits (25 each for a total of 50) in less than 2 hours. Stayed and caught and released at least that many after we had our limits. Also managed 3 bass off the same dock on crappie jigs. 9.30 lb, a 3.5, and a 5. Wished I would have gotten a picture of the fish on livescope.

The crappie are sly and they do that to keep us puzzled. It is their craft and they excel at it.

I would think the cover and or the bait available....like said, it be like that sometimes!

Because crappie are a-holes

And it may be something that most people don't have a way to measure like water PH, dissolved oxygen level, turbidity at the desired depth or a half dozen other factors. When I worked at the BRA I would occasionally go out with the biologists and some of the data they were collecting was very interesting.

It's what makes chasing crappie so special...... Those that put the work in find'um and those that don't...... Well they think crappie fishing is so hard....

Water flow.

Or temperature.

+1 "Fishing" ...another name for hunting IMHO

Food availability.

Water quality can vary quite a bit from one creek to the next. Maybe that has something to do with it? You'd never know the difference without testing it, but the fish do.