First thing i would do would be find that sweet spot out and away from everybody and make my on brush piles. But if you don't have time for that just watch your graph and search for the brushpiles eveyone else is fishing from. Live bait to me all ways works better for me but i do like fish that jig, must be the bass fisherman in me.
Do some homework on crappie. You'll find that even after you locate them they can still be hard to catch. For instatance did you know that crappie will hit a bait moving before hitting one that is just sitting, or that they will only go for bait that is above them and not below they don't bottom feed.
Here in AR they are staging outside the flats full of eggs waithing on the right moment to move in and drop those eggs.
We caught 30 friday night on yoyos finshing only 2" to a 1ft deep. The biggest just over 2lbs.