Prepping for the Spawn

I've now spent a couple of seasons learning to catch crappie through the Fall and into the Winter pattern on 3-4 central Arkansas lakes with moderate to good success. I feel pretty confident that when late September rolls around next year I will have enough knowledge to find and catch fish through Christmas much like I was able to this year, and hopefully even faster and better. The main lesson that I've learned is there is zero substitute for putting in time on the water. So, in looking forward into the upcoming spawning season I'm wanting to put in a little time now scouting for some possible hot spots and familiarizing myself with some possible spawn locations. I've never fished a spawn for crappie, so this year will be my first. If I were going to spend a little time on the water over the next 60 days scouting for spawn locations for the spring, what should I be looking for ?

Just remember some lakes it will all depend on lake levels . On normal pool sometimes you can hit it right in back of shallow coves .The first to warm up are usually on north west side of lakes that get most sunlight . They like brush , stumps , and gravel bottoms if there is any . Remember they all don't move up at once to spawn . I perfer to fish first drop off with cover out from spawning ground . The big mamas tend to run in deposit eggs and leave ,hang out there going in and out . Many times bigger Crappie spawn deeper that most believe . I suspect spawning activity can occurr as deep as 8' or more on some lakes . When folks are beating the shore line brush I will be out in 5 to 10' of water hunting slabs that I feel never go shallow . Any time a cold front passes most Crappie pull back out there till front passes.