Newbie, with a question......of course!!

I live near a small (260 acre) city lake. I've caught a lot of crappie there in the spring, when they are spawning but almost never during the non-spawning periods. The lake is muddy, I mean chocolate milk muddy 90% of the time. There's virtually no cover in the deeper parts of the lake, no brush, standing timber or rocks. There are some shallow creek channels and bottom contour changes. The lake is full of threadfin shad and I've caught ton's of them for bait. I've caught dozens of small crappie in my cast net (over a period of time) when catching shad. These crappie are all small. One-half of the lake is less than 8 feet deep. The area near the dam reaches 18 feet of water though.

I was reading another thread on Crappie.com and some guys were discussing crappie living near or in school's of shad. So, my long winded question is this. If there is virtually zero cover to attract crappie, should I concentrate on finding the schools of shad and fishing those schools? If so, how would you guys go about fishing this way?

Maybe the crappie are staying in very shallow water due to the muddy nature of this lake?

I've learned a lot from browsing Crappie.com. Thanks for all the info.

Welcome aboard. First, muddy water usually warms faster than clear water so after the spawn they mostly move out to deeper water. They will relate to bottom contours over deep water. Not always on the bottom but over it. Do you fish from a boat? If so, try spider rigging over an the deep section. set your rods at different depths to find out how deep the fish are holding. Remember that there will be a thermocline so they may be shallower than you think. If you are fishing from the bank, set slip bobbers at different depths and fan cast out from the bank. hope this helps some. There are a lot of good people on this site that will more than help

For the muddy water you will want to try gold, white, orange, or very bright colors. Crappie will follow the food. Shad are food for larger crappie until the shad get too big. Smaller crappie are plankton eaters. Like said above, look for changes on the bottom. Could be as small as a foot or two hump, weed beds, or the channels. The transition from the shallow water to the deeper water could be key. Especially if the transition is a sharp drop. The crappie can hang on the drop then come into the shallows quickly to ambush the shad.

Please keep us posted. This is a very interesting and educational thread. :popcorn

If cover is available crappie may swim along the line of weeds rather in them.
Oklahoma being further south may have waters warming faster than northern waters and your lake may be going into a pre-spawn temperature which are generally just beyond shallow water spawning areas in deeper water. When it comes to forage, I never ever consider what they eat nor if my lure looks or acts like anything they might eat. (In fact 99 % of lures don't resemble anything a fish eats. JMO).
My friend has been fishing different crappie waters from the shore and in some lake has be catching huge fish 12" or more. I gave some lures to try and he's told me over the last 5 days that they've worked better than others he usually casts. Here are a few:

Both size curl tail grubs have caught fish:
https://i.imgur.com/SfMLAWw.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/51QBxiZ.jpg?1

Crappie Magnet grubs he already had and did very well with them rigged on a 1/16 oz ball head jig either alone or used with a Beetle Spin:
https://i.imgur.com/brDhMxd.jpg

At the same time he caught crappie, he's did well catching large sunfish (note Beetle Spin):
https://i.imgur.com/Qpqrodc.jpg

I gave him some 2 1/4 mini-sticks rigged wacky with a 1/16 oz jig and the fish clobbered them! :
https://i.imgur.com/j1gvvR5.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/StMpS8q.jpg

He caught fish on a crankbait:
https://i.imgur.com/p6FKGZV.jpg

Note: These are photos taken from my photo-album log for illustration purposes. He told me what he caught his fish on and those were some of them.

So to answer your question, there are many soft plastic lure designs in many colors that will catch panfish when rigged on 1/16 oz ball head jigs.
As was suggested, fan cast from different shoreline spots and count down as the lure drops to get an idea of depth. The above lures do well at an uneven speed retrieve with pauses, except that in the case of the mini-stick, lure tip action is from the weight of the dropping jig head or rod tip twitches with pauses on the drop. Most times I've found fish strike at mid-depth except when they're biting near the surface on minnow schools (which is rarely seen).

JMHO

I have seen a few lakes like mentioned ,a road runner in a possibly orange or pink slow slow on the bottom in deeper water over an irregularity on said bottom in the deep of the summer might be good.
and they may go shallow in the dark after schools of shad on flats in the dark as well .

WELCOME Aboard! I do not believe your question centers around what bait to use, but rather how to locate the crappie that are in your lake. From your description of the lake depths, I'm assuming you are fishing from a boat and have electronics on board. I would scout the deeper basin areas. or drop offs to those depths. in search of those schools of shad. Once you find an area that they are in, the lake is small enough that you can troll - long line or side pulling - and cover those areas until you find the fish you are looking for.

Without adequate shoreline cover, I can almost guarantee that your larger fish are following around, underneath the bait balls, for their food source. And that could mean from 1' down to 15' of the water column. I agree with what's been said that brighter colors that contrast well would probably be your best choice of baits to experiment with. Just make sure, once you find the bait, to fish the entire water column. top to bottom. Good Luck! And do let us know how you make out.

Thanks for the great information! I went out yesterday evening. The surface temp is 51-52. I do have a boat and decent electronics. I first tried a couple of shallow shorelines with a bobber and jigs. Nothing. Too early I know, but I keep hoping I'll find them there! I'm not set up for spider rigging, but I do have four ten foot rods. I set them up for spider rigging, without the rod holders. I made a couple of passes along a creek channel that showed only a few fish. The bottom of the channel is 8 feet deep, the sides 4. Nothing. This was in a cove, not in the main lake.

I've always noticed large schools of shad at the north end of the lake, which is near the dam. The shad are usually suspended near a "ridge" that changes from 12-16 fow to about 4. I'm going to try trolling some jigs through those schools of shad tonight, maybe my modified "spider" rigging.

Need to find some threads on long lining and side pulling now. Thanks again. I'll keep updating.

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Originally Posted by Slab Stackin'

Thanks for the great information! I went out yesterday evening. The surface temp is 51-52. I do have a boat and decent electronics. I first tried a couple of shallow shorelines with a bobber and jigs. Nothing. Too early I know, but I keep hoping I'll find them there! I'm not set up for spider rigging, but I do have four ten foot rods. I set them up for spider rigging, without the rod holders. I made a couple of passes along a creek channel that showed only a few fish. The bottom of the channel is 8 feet deep, the sides 4. Nothing. This was in a cove, not in the main lake.

I've always noticed large schools of shad at the north end of the lake, which is near the dam. The shad are usually suspended near a "ridge" that changes from 12-16 fow to about 4. I'm going to try trolling some jigs through those schools of shad tonight, maybe my modified "spider" rigging.

Need to find some threads on long lining and side pulling now. Thanks again. I'll keep updating.

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sent you a PM !!!!

scent plays a major role with crappie in muddy water btw , they have a super nose on them and sound also has its moments .
a rattle above your jig and lots of scent on your jig is likely something I would try even if I wasn't struggling to find larger fish .
and a larger profile bait might be key as well .
i am to assume we are talking about white crappie right ?

Yep. All white crappie so far. I put the boat in yesterday and tried it for a couple hours. The surface temp was showing 55. It was very windy so I didn't get to try out the trolling technique strmwalker suggested. I tried shallow again. Nothing. I used a bobber with rattles and a large blk/chart jig body with a 1/16th head, but no scent. I'll try some scent next. I'm pretty sure they aren't in the shallow water yet (that or I'm just not good at this yet:Rofl) I also think they are following the schools of shad around the lake. Got a lot of rain last night. The lake is about 3 feet above normal and VERY muddy now.