Minnesota guy heading down to Arkansas in a week. Was born on the Bayou Meto and lived down there the first three years of my life til work moved my parents north. Gonna head down and visit dad's family for a week over my son's spring break.

We are going to try to fish a few oxbows off the White River and Arkansas River in the area surrounding Stuttgart. I believe the crappies will be in spawn mode about that time but it sounds like a lot of rain has come thru in the last week and we might see some pretty high water levels, maybe some flooding. Up north the typical spawn habitat is big reed beds, but I am not sure what to look for in a Cypress filled lake. Am I gonna be fishing Cypress stumps or more open water? I know most guys down there are using shiners for crappies cause they are plentiful in Arkansas, but does anyone use plastics down there? I catch about 99.5% of my crappies on plastic up north and am highly confident in them. I'll probably bring some plastics just cause I gotta try it, but we might soak some shiners too.

Just looking for some general ideas. Doesn't have to be specific to the area, just some tips for fishing stump filled waters for crappies.

Couple of decent Minnesota Blacks for good measure.