I am totally a newbie on crappie fishing but from what I have been told by experienced crappie men is this. Water temp hits 60 degrees the males move up to the shallows to start finding spawning locations. The females stage out in 5 - 8 fow waiting for the water temp to get to 64 when they move up and start spawning. cold storm fronts can knock the spawn back as much as 2 weeks. Just passin on info I have gleaned from some good crappie men and websites, including this one.