I have limited exposure but I will give my feedback from my experience. I only fish on Eufaula at our dock in Arrowhead Estates and I only fish with minnows. Last winter I fished from Dec - March on the same pound of minnows and caught very few crappie. This year I finally changed out the 3yr old c-trees back in January and I have seen a large improvement in the number of crappie that I've caught. I've also had to buy more minnows this year -- well worth it based on the number of fish I've caught.