Another key late-fall-into-winter pattern on hill-land reservoirs involves bridge abutments. These areas are among the most popular targets for night fishermen. Most bridges on hill-land impoundments cross creek arms, because the main body of the reservoir is too wide. When these bridges cross the main reservoir, or cross a creek arm close enough to the mouth to span channels at least 40 feet deep, crappies often use the base of central abutments as wintering sites, especially where the lip of the channel is in close proximity to an abutment.

Key spots in this case include: The lips of the channel directly adjacent to bridge pilings; riprap banks dropping into depths of 20 feet or so; and stumpfields, brushpiles, or timber reaching out to the lip of the channel.

Crappies in the upper third of highland or hill-land reservoirs move downstream, away from the river and into the main lake. This movement takes them down the main river channel to a point where its maximum depth reaches at least 35 feet. From that point on, they seem to search for a bend hole with suitable habitat with respect to cover, depth, environmental stability, and forage.

Mid- to lower-reservoir crappies that spend the summer in creek arms or the main lake are looking for environmental stability, as well. The classic fall destination is submerged, standing timber on the slope of a shoreline point (generally a primary or secondary point) where it tapers down to the edge of the main river channel.

Standing timber is the ingredient that turns a good point into a honey hole. Use sonar to find good trees in the proper depth range (40 to 50 feet is ideal). Move around the area at a slow idle and watch your electronics. In cold water, crappies suspend vertically and could appear anywhere within the timber, from the bottom to within 20 feet or so of the surface. In the best spots, sonar reveals tight schools within the branches of the trees. Surprisingly, one tree may hold hundreds of crappies, while a similar tree nearby seems devoid of life. The same trees can attract all the crappies year after year—until, of course, the trees rot away. Only a crappie knows for sure, but there must be subtle differences in the structural makeup of a tree, or in the water quality in the immediate vicinity of each type of wood, which acts to attract or repel baitfish, crappies, or both.

On many highland and deeper reservoirs, from Connecticut to Utah, crappies winter in coves or shoreline “cuts.” Anywhere within these areas, a fallen tree with its roots on the bank and its top under 30 to 40 feet of water is a key spot for fall crappies. In less forested areas of deeper canyon reservoirs, a rockslide, where a segment of canyon wall has crumbled, often provides the only “shelf space” in those critical 35- to 50-foot depths crappies prefer to winter in.

Even in heavily forested New England, where many highland reservoirs exist, a land or rockslide can provide key habitat for fall crappies. From a layman’s perspective, the geology of new England is simple. If it isn’t rock, it’s sand and gravel. A surface layer of topsoil and intertwined roots holds everything together. Along the shoreline of deep impoundments, this layer of topsoil quickly washes away. If the underlying layer is sand and gravel, it soon erodes. Eventually banks cave in, and in some instances the resulting landslides take large chunks of real estate into the steep-sided reservoir. Sometimes the landslide takes down entire, full-grown hardwoods. It’s not uncommon to find such trees 45 feet down and 25 feet or more out from the new bank. And that’s the purest definition of a prime-time crappie hot spot in a highland reservoir, when autumn rolls around.