I've found the best approach is a much less confrontational "oh, I can't put my bags up here because there's crew bags, do you know where I can put them?".
This way you're not blaming them (whether they're at fault or not) and you're simply asking for help - in every situation they've either made space within the first few rows or put it further back and brought my bag up to me on landing. Same situation if it's not even crew bags, just other passenger bags.
Although I should add I never need to take things out of my bag on short haul so it doesn't bother me if my bag isn't within reach.