Thread: Why are these crappie so shallow in Feb?

Have a 225 acre lake I have access to. There are a couple different feeder creeks to this watershed and there are thousands upon thousands of crappie up in the shallow 3 ft deep water in the creeks. So thick they look like giant schools of bluegill. I've never seen this on another body of water but the fish do this here every February shortly after ice out then return back to normal patterns as March/April arrive.

Any clue why the fish would do this? It seems very unusual for the kind of crappie behavior I'm used to.

Water warms up quicker in creeks. Everything looks for warmer water...