Water levels at Barnett Rez

I'm fairly new to crappie fishing and have fished the Tom Bigbee the most. How do water levels affect crappie? And do you normally wait for the levels to go down and become stable before a good bite starts? I was watching guys fishing below the spillway yesterday and don't see how they could catch anything but there were a ton of guys trying. Most boats looked to be within 100 feet of the boat ramp anchored down. And since the level (above the dam) of Barnett is controlled by the gates of the spillway does the rain affect the crappie bite there?

Sure it affects to a point. It puts surrent in the lake and crappie will go to less current. Down at the spillway when you see all those boats in that one spot. It's usually when the water level is falling. There's a dropoff right there and that first ledge is where the crappie stage when they pull back form the bushes. I like he river to be at about 24 feet and falling a foot or so a day personally. There's a couple deep holes down river a couple miles that hold some real good fish

Thanks DonDon