To me, and I am on the water a lot, I use Water Temp. When that temp is in the high 40's and low 50's I find the fish moving up. This year about 47 degrees surface temp, I was finding females in the 10-15 fow. This started for me in East Texas the first week of Feb. The great thing is that unlike what most people think, the spawn last more than just 4 weeks. I have seen some people saying it is almost over here. That is not true. Nature tells those fish when to come in. They come in waves, not all at once, so here in East Texas we will have spawning crappie until April for sure. I do not fish banks often because I want to catch the big girls that are hanging out in that 10-15 fow. What people do not know (I got this from a biologist) is that the females are only in the shallows laying eggs for about 2-3 hours if they are uninterrupted. At that point they go back out to the 10-15 fow and eat, then slowly work their way back out to the lake. For me personally I release all fish at this time of year but that is just a preference.

You guys that find them shallow are better fishermen than me for sure. I've tried and tried using all methods to find/catch them shallow but generally to no avail. I usually resort to the 10-15 foot range and hope to catch a few staging or returning to the main lake after spawning out. At Lavon at least, it looks like there's infinite areas for them to go spawn. I've found it to be similar to looking for a needle in a haystack.