Deeper water crappie question

[squeedunk]

When it comes to spring time crappie fishing I have been very narrow minded and focus almost entirely on 1-6 foot depths. I generally do not have access to a depthfinder but may use my FL-8 this spring to locate schools of fish or baitfish. How should I go about finding fish in deeper than the typical "spawning" depths. Is it most effective to cast and retrieve, troll, or use a float? Are the active crappies going to be suspended in the deeper water or should I fish closer to the bottom? I am anxious to get out to try for myself but am hoping some of you may be able to give me some pointers. Thanks~Dan

[beeflover]

if you know what fish look like on your flasher under the ice they will look the same now. In the summer I usually troll just outside the weedline until I can mark good numbers of fish on my flasher or graph.

this time a year I like to start shallow first. If you can't find them in 1-3 ft inside the weedline then you might try outside. I'm usually fan casting with a tube or grub under a bobber because I can cast the bobber a lot farther than if I fish just a tube alone.

Don't bother to toss the hook till you catch a fish or two, cover a lot of water. I wouldn't stay in any one bay for more than 1/2 hour without a fish. Hit the back of the bay, then back off to the inside edge of the weedline, then along the outside the weed line then head for the next bay. When you get outside the weeds in 8-10 ft you should be able to see fish on the flasher.

Last Thursday, my last time out I saw a lot of crappie on the graph suspended out over 23 ft 100 yds outside the weedline, just like winter

If you get a day with a nice warming trend make sure you try shallow again in the late afternoon evening.

As the weather cooled off last week its been easy to mark fish outside the weeds but real hard to catch them. If you find a good bunch of fish you might try the same real light tackle you use ice fishing.