Crappie prefer wood over any other type of cover. That doesn’t mean that you can’t find crappie around the weeds and rocks on a lake that has wood. That just means you have more options. Most anglers are going to start with the wood if there are some good spots with wood on the body of water they are fishing.
In the Spring, Fish the Flooded Timber & Brush Along the Shorelines
If you can find some flooded timber and brush during the spring, you should be able to find tons of crappie. Good numbers of fish will move into these shallow water areas to spawn and they are easy to catch. Using bobbers with small jigs and live minnows will catch plenty of crappie near the shallow timber and brush.
Find the Brush Piles
Brush piles are also very popular cover for crappie. In many lakes, anglers place brush piles throughout the lake. In shallow water, you may be able to see the brush piles, especially in clearer water on sunny days. In deeper water, it is easy to spot these brush piles on your fish finder when you are over them. Some areas will have multiple Christmas trees on the bottom and they are hard to miss if you are paying attention to your fish finder. You may only find a couple of fish on each brush pile, so it pays off to have numerous spots to fish. On good days, you might only need a couple of brush piles to fish because they will be stacked up in one spot.
Standing Timber Holds Crappie Too
On some bodies of water, you may find entire trees in the water. This standing timber is perfect for crappie and these spots can sometimes hold very large numbers of crappie in a single tree.
