I can tell you about what my lake and the crappie did this year and last. First fish don't like the water changing near their spawn.
So last year the crappie moved in just as expected, but our leaders of the Sabine River Authority decided the lake was too high even though it was not over full pool by any means, still they dropped it 2' over a few weeks time period. The crappie after only being on the banks for a very few days moved out to 9 1/2' of water and stayed there the entire spring. This year our water was low and I did hear of some being caught shallow (2' of less), but only from one person. All the fish I found and caught were in 6'-8' of water and would move out more like 10' or more if the temps dropped at all.

So water levels changing is not a good thing and don't think it matters if it up or down, the fish don't care for that. Small changes just make them hesitate IMHO, but a larger drop or rise of a foot or more and they don't like it at all. I think this year and last year most of them spawned at deeper water than normal. Now I am not saying there was not any that spawned shallow, but most of them I believe were deeper.

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