I do a lot of crappie fishing in the fall, but it's on inland lakes in SW Ohio, so if you're planning on fishing them at Erie this may not be much help. I usually fish lay down trees or brush piles in 10-20 ft of water. Fish are usually in the bottom half of the water column. Evening's usually better than morning. I usually fish Bobby Garland baby shad jigs, but a slip bobber/ minnow is always a good choice. Especially when the fish are being difficult or I'm getting hung up a lot jigging. I've only tried once recently. We caught prob 60, kept 21 in a couple hours. Should get better as the water cools. And a far as water temp goes, I start catching them really as soon as it gets out of the summertime temps. Seems like as soon as the water starts to cool, they move back up to feed up for winter. And i catch them all the way thru winter, either thru the ice, or open water. I caught a limit on Christmas day last year... Good luck