Thanks for all the information--just finished reading all 151 pages over the past two days. I've pulled cranks with some limited time on the water and hope to do more in the coming weeks.

One thing I can add is catching crappie is all about following the bait no matter what time of year or water/air temperature and finding their preferred depth. My fishing partner a year ago got all the latest technology--Humminbird Onix 8 with 2D, DI, SI and 360 Imaging. He also has the I-Pilot Link, so most of the time we set the cruise control and use the follow-the-contour feature. The boat is completely self-driven. With this technology, I can see underwater especially well. The single most important thing I have discovered is that there always seems to be a certain depth that the crappie will be located. It may be 7' or 27', but there is a comfort zone with bait nearby in which they can be found. We feel confident that we can put plenty of crappie in the boat with minnows and jigs, now we are going to focus on crankbaits.

I feel that with the input and sharing of knowledge in this thread, we will be able to find some good crappie fairly soon. We have a crappie tournament here in NC on the 29th and we hope to be able to pull cranks. We entered a trounament on this lake a month ago and and caught over 100, but the biggest five only weighed three pounds. I'm tired of catching lots of little crappie and want to go after the bigger ones. Thanks again everyone.