When we lived in the Kansas City area, I used to go to the heated docks at Melvern. It was usually pretty warm inside the warming area, so I usually fished from the adjacent docks. Seemed to be a lot of 'oldtimers' that fished almost every day and they all knew eachother, and most of them caught fish. Was not unusual to catch 15 or 20 keepers (>10") in just a few hours, but some days the fish just were not there. Some of the guys there would have rods set out fishing for catfish using crappie innards/ribs and did pretty good even in the cold water. In late winter they would use the crappied sacs/eggs for bait and did even better...don't think that is legal even in Kansas. I had a 65 mile drive to the docks, so sometimes I would call ahead just to see if the crappie were active. They were either on or off. Did not like to use minnows there and seemed that the smaller the jig and lighter the line the more luck you would have. I also used to go to Pomona to their heated dock, but Melvern seemed to produce better.
the trick to catch that finnicky speck....
gently set the hook just before the peck