New to this crappie fishing thing. How deep do they go? Do the prefer a certain depth? Thanks

Depends on how deep the lake is and how cold the water is. I've caught them 40 ft deep. But I'm no expert.

It varies from lake to lake to be honest. Some lakes they head to the creeks in relatively shallow water.....while in others they migrate to water near the river channels and dam 30+ feet deep. At least that's my experience here in north Texas.

I probably should add this is on a private 25 acre lake with max depth of 40ft

Regardless of water temp, crappie follow the bait fish. General rule, bait fish look for warmer water, usually deeper, around 55-57 degrees. Colder the surface temp deeper they go. If you have electronics, look for the bait fish. Crappie are usually close to the dinner table.

Some good answers above! If I had to guess in a 25 acre lake they’re suspended out in that deeper water. Especially if they’re black crappie.

On the 60 acre lake I live on, with up to 40 ft. depth, they stay on the brush piles or artificial structures we place. Most are in 12-15 ft. water depths, some are 25. They seem to stay near the tops of the deeper piles, but down in the shallower ones. I think they are worried about getting eaten by the bass. We dont have a tremendous crappie population, but its growing.

in central texas lakes, 26 feet seems to be where they like to be when the lakes at normal pool. so I will look in 19 to 32 feet. this year the lakes are very low, and 21 to 22 feet seem to be where im finding them.
Winter fishing can be kind of strange.. like yesterday, we were on waco and found an old tree stump in 21.5 FOW.
we saw baitfish hanging around the stump, with a few fish. what was happening though as we could plainly see on livescope is that crappie were coming back and forth into that spot, picking off baitfish hanging near the stump. so as they would come thru trying to ambush the baitfish, we would ambush them,. so what im getting at, is if you find a hump or ledge, dropoff ect with or without some sort of cover on it, but you see baitfish, try it, because the fish may not be schooled up, clinging to the cover. sometimes they just sit on the bottom and are very difficult to see, even with the best electronics. the baitfish are moving alot, and the gamefish are set up in ambush areas to feed on them..usually near the end of a main lake point, or even on a gradual flat, which we were on yesterday, there will be a ledge or drop off where it transitions to deeper water. this is what u are looking for. along creek or river channels there is usually a dropside, and a flat side, you want to fish the drop side. some river channels are not well defined, they can be wide and shallow and not have much of a ledge to them.. lake waco is like this. I think the main river channel has filled with silt over the years. so I dont concentrate on it much. if u study the lake topography on google web app, u can quickly find high probability areas to try before you get out there.,
If you go to LBJ which is a long river system, there is a defined drop side, and a gradual flat side along the whole river channel. we always find fish on the ledge of the drop side, and not on the flat side.

I usually catch them in the 35-45’ range but that’s often as deep as it gets on the lakes I fish. Deepest I’ve ever caught/heard of them being caught is 55’.

Caught some on bottom last week in 40-50 ft in open water.

1 foot to 50 foot LOL