Mack & I had our issues Saturday and my patience wore thin too but in cold water I think it's still the method to beat. I'd much rather catch one or two fish on a jig than 25 trolling but the operative term here is "catch".

Yup, issues.

Based on my limited knowledge chasing crappie the past 20 yrs, Jerry is right on the money about fishing slow and deep with minnows in cold water temps. I think spider rigging also has the advantage of placing several baits in front of the fish simulating a school of bait. Sort of stimulates the feeding response. With the exception of lakes that have a lot of big crappie (2#+ like Pines, Lavon) I think big crappie are like big bass, they tend to be solitary fish. You don't find schools of 2# fish, just schools of 8-12" fish. Big crappie tend to be around isolated structure that doesn't draw a crowd. Big fish are lazy and don't want to compete for the food. Trolling real slow as Jerry stated above will be better suited for the big fish.
Prior to the Lavon tour, my partner and I had never spider rigged. I'm like most people, holding that rod and feeling the thump is great. However, after listening to the advice of others, I made a homemade rig from square tubing and we went spider trolling on a lake we had never seen. The advice that stuck was from Paul and Jerry when both said several times, fish slow and be patient. That advice was key along with spider rigging. We fished the same brush pile all day. Exciting? Not exactly. Effective? YES. We had 7 keepers in the boat at 7:40. We culled a few of those between 8-11. The bite was real slow from 9-12. From 12-1:30 we culled all the fish we had. My partner said he would just as soon fish blind over the brush pile as troll the dam blind. Patience and slow fishing paid off.