Structure Question??

[PERCHIN101]

Well I am hoping for some input.  In the spring I fish for spawning crappies on a somewhat large river.  The current isn't excessive as it freezes without a problem.  The channel drops to 14' in a couple locations with shallow thick weed flats making up the rest.  The river also has a couple bridges.  My question is if anyone would fish the bridge structure during the winter, or where in a river environment would I begin to look for winter crappies??  Please help!

[Swift]

The calmest water with food and some cover I can find, any backwaters? Some species can deal with moving water fairly well but it's not a Crappies strong suit, they aren't likely to fight any type of a current voluntarily. Have taken nice 'gills, Crappies and Pike in river backwaters in the past and they weren't much more than 5' deep 

[Cotacatchers]

X2.  Any backwaters with deep water near flats

[PERCHIN101]

Closest thing to backwater would be behind the bend of an inside corner but they tend to be real shallow.  The only deeper water being the channel.  The river does connect to a lake but were talking miles away with no prominent basin like other lakes.  The lake gets heavy fishing pressure from perch fisherman but I've never seen a crappie caught there as I fish it on a regular basis.  This leads me to believe the crappies never leave the river system. 

[Swift]

If the lake is heavily fished for Perch there's a good possibility nobody has ever tried very hard to find the Crappie. Happens on numerous bodies of water, everywhere. They get the reputation for a certain species, the others get neglected over time and can be numerous and huge if you can find them. I'd work the lake and forget looking for Crappie on moving water, 'eyes - maybe