usually you find gills back in any sandy cut or cove. I like to fish them with jigs and a piece of night crawler about 1inch long. drag your jig on bottom or a lift and drop works good. they like to nest around some kind of structure like a small patch of grass or a small stick in the water or maybe a few scattered rocks in a shallow sandy cove. any one of these spots will produce gills but certain ones will hold bigger gills. sometimes to get the bigger ones you need to fish the deeper edge of a bed. as far as crappie I would fish really shallow. I have been looking at the dates on some of my pictures and the end of march and early april I have caught fish really shallow on a pink jig and chartrues sassy shad. every year is different and this winter is no exception. this pattern mite run latter.