The association of productive crappie fishing and springtime is a strong one, the reason being that at some point during this season, great numbers of the fish will be found in shallow water. Any scenario where concentrations of fish are found in select areas tends to play in the angler’s favor.

However, spring can also be a time of disappointment for crappie anglers. Eager folks, inspired by the first warming trends of the year, assault the shallows in hopes the same weather pattern has driven these tasty panfish into thin-water cover, places that likely produced in years past. Typically, though, these anglers meet with disappointment rather than a livewell peppered with early spring crappies.

The transition from deeper wintering locations to shallow cover is a gradual one, strongly linked to seasonal and day-to-day weather patterns. Understanding these movements, and applying tactics in response to such, is much more efficient than camping out on shallow water cover in the hopes that the fish show up and are in a biting mood.

Early season crappies – just after ice out on lakes that experience hard water – tend to be in deeper locations, often ones associated with submerged wood cover. Longer periods of daylight along with warming water temperatures will inspire fish movement to shallow water. These initial movements are driven by the need to feed rather than to spawn, with an exodus of the shallows occurring when inevitable cold snaps return. Eventually water temperatures reach the level conducive to spawning and the fish will remain in the shallows for an extended time.

Early season crappies will likely still be in wintering locations at this time. This often means close to deep, wood cover. Deep is relative to each body of water. But depths of 20 to 30 feet are common in most reservoirs.

Wood cover can be in the form of submerged trees (or tree sections); shoreline laydowns; brushpiles and cribs introduced as added fish habitat.

Typically, the surface temperature during this early time frame will range from the upper 30s to around 50 degrees. In such cold water, it’s unlikely the fish will chase baits. More commonly you’ll need to first locate them, and then put a lure/bait in their face to inspire bites.

Sonar plays a big part in finding productive cover. Traditional 2D sonar will identify deep, offshore wood, but it’s limited in its ability to separate the cover from fish. Down imaging does a great job of target separation. Side imaging does as well and greatly expands the swath of area being examined.

It’s common for crappies to be loaded up on one piece of cover, while nearby ones remain mostly vacant. For instance, a cluster of 12 cribs in 22 feet of water, but only one or two holding fish, or the remnants of a submerged tree where all the fish are hovered in and around the branches of the treetop, with little relating to the main trunk.

Tightly concentrated fish demand precise presentation. Hovering over fish-holding cover and working it vertically is typically necessary. Crappie-sized plastics fished on light (1/16-to-1/8-ounce jighead) yo-yoed in and around the cover is often productive. So is a smaller blade bait. If it’s windy, the addition of a small bullet weight 18 inches up the line can add feel to the lighter jigs. A small swivel that connects the main line to a short leader will secure the bullet weight. I like using thin braid such as Sufix Nanobraid to feel light bites as well as to maneuver baits in and around the deep cover.

Crappies feed up, so experiment with various depths around the cover you are fishing. And be alert for “negative bites” where the crappie strikes the bait from below and continues upward. If you lose contact with the bait it’s likely a crappie has inhaled it.

Jeff Knapp is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle