Winter crappie transition

I was on a great crappie bite this summer and early fall. I figured out a pattern and wore them out. I’m still a crappie beginner and trying to learn the ropes. What structure do you guys key in to catch winter crappie? I checked out a few spots that have produced for me this summer but no bites. Not sure if the cold weather or rain scattered them or both. Any advice is appreciated

This time of year their out in deep open water following shad schools. Find the bait balls and drift jigs under the bait.

I agree with finding the bait but don't rule out the bait being shallow....
What i'm dealing with now is the fish are really not relating to structure and that makes it hard to target crappie but yes find the bait and fish at the depth they are or just below.....
Spidering has definitely worked best for me as of late....

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Spider rigging was going to be my suggestion. Use your finder to locate bait balls and starting depths. Then use spider rigging with 6-8 rods to pin them down as to best depth and locations.. Once you locate them fish for them using the method you prefer if you don't like spider rigging.

I spent Thursday doing this. I found them in water as shallow as 15' and as deep as 53 '. The bait balls were between 2-3' higher than the crappie. The crappie were all suspended around 50% of the water depth. So in 50' of water they were suspended around 20'-25'.

The water temperature was 48 degrees. I did not find many crappie over bps nor under the bridges. They were near the bridges but 30'-40' out from the bridges.

I marked them with my finder and then used spider rigging along the path of the bait balls.

Bite was very slow.

Don't forget to check the creeks.. Plenty of limits to be had in them too this time of year.

Find bait in deep water or check your creeks
I know they bite good on granbury in the creeks!
We did Good Friday fishing under shad

Man, there's some slabbies' in the front row,...boy howdy !!

Nice haul.

Best mess of fish that I have seen in awhile! Sweet!!!

So I went yesterday on Texoma and the surface temp was 39-42 and I didn’t mark a single fish until I hit 40’ deep. Right at the break they were STACKED on top of each other. I jigged for 5 hours without a single hit. I did not chart any bait balls though, and I did not locate any structure...they were just stacked up after the drop off to 40’ right on the bottom. As the day went on they moved up slightly to around 34’. I couldn’t go chart deeper water because of the wind and I was in a small Jon boat.

What would you guys have done differently.

I can’t believe I got completely skunked because I know for sure those were crappie on my chart...I should’ve snapped a picture to post.

Yetiguy sounds like you may have been limited by the boat you were in but if we don’t get a bite within 15 minutes we movin.

I agree with Gary.....and sometimes 5mins and I’m gone.....

Bait is the key in winter!

Fish located around the bait are probably feeding occasionally, where others are not. Keep moving til you find the active fish.

Good luck!

As mentioned before, deep water and bait is where the fish will be

Yeti, Sounds like you were on inactive fish which happens a lot. I would have moved after 5 minutes as well. Crappie if they are there and active will bite within the first few drops for the most part. If they don't then I move.