There is some good crappie action to be found on pool 8. When you find them they are stacked staging for the spawn which is not far off. I have been fishing an area with Sharp ledge that starts at 4fow and drops to 20fow. A week ago I found the fish at 13', Friday evening there were hanging out at 8'. The water temp has come up to 63 degrees.

A Chartreuse Swedish Pimple or Silver/Green have been producing fish for me. I have been staying vertical over the side of the boat using the trolling motor working back and forth on the drop. The MarCum LX-5 has been revealing fish all over the drop but the trick is to find the depth the fish are the most active.

There are fish being caught with minnows under slip bobbers also but there is something about jigging them up, making it my favorite method for crappies before they are shallow. It is cool to feel the slam or watch your line go slack when they commit to the attack while fishing over the side of a boat!

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THanks for the report Bret. When do you think the spawn should happen?

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It is on the way now Andy I got into a few pigs at 13 1/2 inches Sunday on a sand / gravel bar with the signs of wear and tare. Frayed tails and sore mouths was a sure sign the spawn is begining.
I kept a dozen fish 11-12 inches and one of the pigs that was gut hooked for the fryer. I released 5 other true pigs giving them a chance to complete there mission! Water temp in the area I fished Sunday morning was 60.9 degrees.
The best bite was early morning. Between 6:15am and 10:00am I boated at least 30 some good sized crappies.

with the water temp where it is bret, do you think we are at average temps for this time of year, or are we warmer or colder?

I would say this is the normal crappie spawn time of year.
This pic shows what a true pig female crappie looks like when spawning on Gravel/Sand. This is a 13.5" crappie that I kept because of a gut hook. The others are what I consider good eater size at 11-12 inches. I released 5 other fish that were 13 plus inches so they could go about there business

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you better be careful eating that one. i saw those markings on a girl in a text book once, and it also was from "spawning"

Now that was funny