Ketchn,
Its just a different lake in the winter it seems from every other lake I have winter fished. I do fish the dam and did really well down there in about 50' of water until the week before Christmas, I've hit it 3 times since then and its a ghost town. I don't think the brush piles get much pressure in the winter, the last 2 times I was on the lake were weekend days and beautiful but cold and I saw maybe 2 other boats on the lake and I was the only boat at the ramp the whole day it looked like. I did not see anyone fishing a brush pile but me, I had my pick of them. I just don't think the crappie stack up on them in the winter or at least at this point in the winter. I'm sure there is a stray here and there but no numbers of any kind. But with the literal thousands of fish I see in a morning in the Spring, Summer, or Fall out there, they have to all be somewhere, the question is where.... It kills me I can not figure that out. I have never had a lake where I lose them for 3 months but this lake is kicking my butt in the winter. My suspicion says they are up the creeks. There is a little bridge up buck creek on the North shore where buck creek road crosses the tiny part of the creek there, I fished under that bridge in a kayak one cold Jan day a few years back and it is like 3'-4' deep under that bridge and you only had about 2' of clearance above the water, I had to duck and hold my head on the bridge but I caught a limit in like 45 minutes under there. That is what leads me to believe they go way up the creeks right now but other than that, I can't prove it.