During the spawn, put your minnow in the deepest part of the cover. When you locate crappie, mark that spot on your GPS. When that place stops producing, come back to it later in the day or on another day.

Small creeks, streams and sloughs are also productive areas to fish for spawning crappie, because they warm up more quickly. Crappie generally will be spawning in these regions before they spawn in other places. Because these areas are somewhat protected, there's a good chance that these crappie haven't been pressured by other anglers and will be more eager to bite.

You don't need a boat to fish on a big reservoir to catch crappie during the spawn. Plenty of big slabs are caught fishing from the bank on little creeks.