springtime crappies?

[TroutFishingBear]

I've been thinking about hitting a local lake for crappies. It is almost ready I think. Since minnows are illegal to use in most of colorado, what should I use this time of year? How should I rig it? If I don't have a fishfinder what depths should I try? The lake is a fairly small lake that has a bunch of sticks on the north side and a rocky dam that reaches maybe 25-30 ft. on the southside. The east side has a swimbeach and a little feeder stream, where should I fish? (most areas besides the dam are appx. 15 ft. deep). Thanks for any help in advance!

[bigdave1018]

yo slipbob how many people in here really read a posting before replying to it? tfb said you cant use minnows where he fishes!!!!!!!!!!! tfb, try little tube jigs or icejigs tipped with spikes. id try the sticks ist then just off them on the dropoffs to see if the females are staging ready to come into the  shallows. here in ny, the males move in shallow ist followed by the females when the temp. hits the certain degree[ im thinking 50?] hope this helps,tfb

[crappieman12887]

 hay slibbob there you are,i dont know much about crappie fish but i would like two but my two cent in here from just a couple of years [20 or so ]fishing crappies i think you would want to find a few good warm water discharges,mybe the out side of a culvert,and cast out as far as you couldand try and find the edgeof the drop offs and as the day goes on try working closer to the shore from the sun will heat up the shallows alittle more mid day,hope this helps you guys out bill

[Thriller]

Not sure how warm it is down there yet TFB (was fishing through nearly 3 feet of ice on Monday, but temps are warmer now and snow is melting quick).

I would think of trying the north shore...the sun will warm that area...if there are reeds or something like that, casting just into them can be successful.  Last summer was my first year targetting them - started out with small jigs with maybe an inch of crawler...I've really come to like 1-2" tube jigs though with or without crawler.  Getting maggots or wax worms can be tough here, so I tend to stick with crawlers.

Using untipped tubes, I have outfished folks using jigs with bait (but that was in November).