If your surface temps are in the low 70's then they have been spawning and are most likely finishing up now. Slow doesn't surprise me at all. When crappie are caught in the shallows during "the spawn" they usually caught in a pre- or post- stage. Once they are on the bed with eggs they are very hard to catch. Not all the crappie lay their eggs at the same time, so that is why they can be caught randomly in the shallows throughout the whole period of time as they move in and out of the shallows. Finding and fishing the staging areas near the spawn bedding areas can usually be productive in all stages from pre-spawn to post-spawn.

This year on Lake Greeson they spawned in late March. Then the water warmed up beyond the right spawning temp. Then we got that really cold front and lost nearly 20 degrees of water temp. Now the water has warmed back up and they are finishing up what they started. The water has been very clear so they are spawning in deeper water than normal. To confound that the water level is such that there's not much cover at the level they want to spawn. All this rain we are getting today is going to raise the lake level, cool the water off some and hopefully stain it up. It will be interesting to see what it does to the fish. Of course, my hopes is that it REALLY TURNS THEM ON!!!