Originally Posted by RCC
On the St Francis river, old timers have told me you never need to fish more than 18 inces deep winter spring summer or fall. I have found this to be true, but of course the fish always favor the shady side of the tree in the heat. On the local lake, I have found that the fish will hunt shad and they will be at whatever depth the shad are. As the sun gets higher, they will go to structure and hold tight to the shady side. There are some on the board who love to fish for midday crappie since they won't be roving randomly around the lake, but will be holding to structure.
Hope this helps, and I know there will be others to suggest things as well.