One thing I've noticed about the crappie is that the males will be up and building nest in the mid to upper 50's. By the time the water gets into mid 60's they will be in full spawn.

Last year I almost missed the main spawn on my favorite lake because I was waiting for the water to hit 64 like it needs to be on Washington and Union before the main spawn happens. On a whim, I checked out the spawning flats with the water temp only at 58-60 and they were already up in water as shallow as 2 feet lol. They were not in full spawn yet but they were just starting to spawn in good numbers. One day you'd catch 8 then the next time out you might catch 30. I won't make that mistake again this year.

Another thing I really pinned down was finding where the fish would stack up before coming in shallow or where they'd stack up if the weather turned bad and they had to move off the beds for a few days. We would fast troll crankbaits through these areas and pick up a nice crappie on every pass. This year I'll start fishing those areas a month earlier then I did last year. They should be there.