During the spring, before crappie move to their shallow spawning areas, you'll find them prowling water 6 to about 10 feet deep at the mouths of major creeks on big reservoirs. I've used crappie jigs floated beneath party balloons to catch crappie in large numbers when they are on the flats under these circumstances.

I've also caught them by casting ultralight soft-plastic curly-tailed grubs in the same areas. However, when breezes blow across shallow flats, catch crappie while you cover a lot of territory without repeated casting by using a balloon to put life into your artificial lure. Just inflate a small party balloon to about the size of a large lemon or avocado, tie it onto your line about 18 to 24 inches above the hook and let the wind move your jig across an area you think the crappie may be traveling.

As temperatures warm in early spring, crappie often congregate at depths of 12 to 35 feet. Standing timber along roadbeds, boat lanes, the pilings and cross members of bridges, logjams and brushpiles are ideal for finding crappie at that time of year, most particularly during midmorning and early-afternoon hours, when the sun is high.

Two ways to determine the depth that fish are holding at when staging in cover away from the rays of the sun and not actually spawning: Either start with your lure or bait just off the bottom and reel it up about a foot at a time to find where the fish are holding -- or do just the opposite, starting near the surface and working the lure or bait toward the bottom.

When crappie hold on bridge structures, for example, they may be stacked atop an underwater concrete cross member midway to the bottom; this is even more likely to occur when they find brush or limbs there. At other times they may be holding next to the bridge piling itself, near the bottom or close to the surface at what they consider their comfort zone.

If unusually cold temperatures arrive during early spring, you can bet that the crappie won't be shallow. At many lakes, this is the time that indoor crappie houses, brushed boat slips at marinas, deep manmade brushpiles and large trees in deep water become the name of the game, crappie jigs and soft-plastic tubes often outproduce live minnows, and fishing s-l-o-w-l-y and with lots of patience is the only way to go.

When cold fronts push crappie back into deep water during pre-spawn periods, the fish usually don't go far from the shallow water that they were seeking. Look for them around the bases of large stumps and trees, or close to the deepest parts of creek and river channels in which brushpiles and other structures lie near spawning areas.

Learning your favorite lake's structure will help you catch more crappie not only during the spring but also year 'round. A sonar depthfinder is a valuable tool when you're searching for underwater brushpiles near drop­offs into creek channels, brush around bridge pilings or brush placed near boat docks. Fishing a single minnow or crappie jig under a slip-cork in thick cover will work just fine, but you can increase your chances of catching large numbers of crappie by using two minnows or lures at a time when you fish around thin cover or on the outside of thick cover. (Check first to make sure the practice is permitted at the lake that you're fishing.)

I know an angler who ties multiple crappie jigs on his line whenever he's fishing bridge structure. The guy catches a lot of crappie -- and you can't argue with success!

My favorite rig for spawners is the slip-cork setup with either a minnow or jig. I tie a rubber band on the line above the slip-cork to allow me to adjust the depth of the hook-to-bobber relationship. I've scored on more crappie than I can count with both minnows and jigs while I dabbled that setup around brushpiles in lakes, creeks and rivers of all sizes. When fishing with a live minnow, I hook the bait through its lips from the bottom up; it's less injurious to the minnow and so keeps it lively.

During the post-spawn period, I prefer the double-hook setup with each hook approximately 18 inches apart above a split shot -- when fished vertically, a very effective rig for the outside edges of thick cover or relatively clean structures such as bridge pilings, deep dock pilings, brushpiles and tree stumps.

Regardless of the bait you use, the key to catching crappie lies chiefly in your ability to locate them. Spring brings change to weather and water, and crappie adjust to it. You can improve your chances of catching them, regardless of conditions, by adjusting right along with them.