What months of the year are crappie most accessible from the bank? I know they go deep in summer and winter.

Spring and winter. Spring time usually a little bit of march, april, and some of may they spawn. In the winter, usually November-February they can be found in some creeks. There are always exceptions, particularly in river systems, but pretty much November-mid may. After about mid May they’re on main lake brush piles, bridges, and docks in anywhere from 8-25’ of water until they start to move again usually around October.

Creeks in the winter are a waste of time because they have only dinks. I think I have heard someone say that. LOL

IMO, the best time to find them in the creeks is the winter from NOV 1st though about FEB 1st. They are stacked in numbers of nice fish better because the cold water has them bunched up deep in the holes. The spring can be good but you have to hunt them down more and there is constant rain.

I still wade fish some for them, academy ligkt waders about 70.0$ , usually a 10ft rod, Fun. Btw am 65+. You may be able to get permisson to fish docks which can be awesome. Good luck.

after heavy rains in spring , summer, fall alot of times they go really shallow.. sometimes in fall they go really shallow no matter what the water level. in summer in the morning they can be shallow but move deeper during the day to avoid intense sunlight.,
casting a slip cork rig, or slow rolling a jig around know brushpiles and timber off of main lake points can get you some fish .
in the morning , slow roll a roadrunner over the top of the brush, in the afternoon, slip cork a minnow or jig next to the brush.
in most deep water lakes, most crappie go deep all winter , but if the lake is not very deep., like 25 feet or less and has creek and river systems, most tend to go into creeks.,, they follow shad.
you can put in your own brushpiles that are accessible from the bank in times of low water, like now.
NEW brush, that was alive, like hardwood branches and trees is by far the best you can use.. why I dont know,,
you can fish 1,000 old trees that have been in a lake since before it was flooded. and catch nothing,. but go put fresh brush near one of the old dead trees and crappie show up.. when trees deteriorate they give of mostly nitogen, and a bit of oxygen, im sure theres other chemicals in the sap, bark, ect that come out., it will attract minnows and crappie.

heres the most important part , look for the most nutrient rich water in the lake you can find, it will have a certain emerald green tinge to it, and pay attention to the smell.. when gamefish feed on shad, the oil from other partially digested shad rises to the surface.. the smell is unique,, it kind of smells like watermellon rind.. white bass especially , regurgitate undigested shad in favor of new, fresh shad and cause most of this , but the crappie will be in the area for shad too. Get tuned in to your surroundings,, where theres large schools of shad,, seagulls, Terns and cormorant will also be close by.. these birds must feed every day so they keep constant tabs on shad locations., if you see a flock of gulls resting on the bank, they are either in an area that they just found and fed on shad, or its a common feeding area they are staying close to. if you watch the flock , every now and then a couple of the birds will take flight,., they are the scouts in the flock,., they will fly around the lake, looking for surfacing shad that gamefish are pushing to the surface and fly back to the flock and let the rest know, then the whole flock will follow them to the feeding grounds... I have not yet determined if the same birds in a flock do the scouting or they alternate to rest but theres usually a couple birds scouting most of the day.. in the morning they will roost near where they last fed. wshen I say roost, they may just sleep on the bank, or cormorants will be in trees.
depending on where you live bank fishing will be more challenging, and getting u a float tube or small boat can greatly help . here in central texas, with our very deep lakes, crappie will be in 14 to 22 feet of water most of the summer.
one last thing, in my opinion most gamefish primarily feed at night,, the crappie that are willing to bite are the ones who didnt do well the night before, so aside from finding thier locations, you must also find the actively feeding fish in the locations,,