Crappie with eggs now???

**M R Dux** · 01-01-2014, 10:35 AM

There seems to be a lot of folks really concerned about the crappie being caught now having eggs in them. This puzzles me because I have caught crappie on KY/Barkley in October that had eggs in them then and you know good and well they are not fixing to spawn. I just always assumed that within a few months of spawning, the crappie females were developing eggs for the next spring spawn. I have caught river bass in late summer that had eggs in them that were as hard as BBs and assumed they didn't have the correct water conditions at their normal spawn time and they didn't spawn and were re-absorbing the eggs. We caught some big female whites in Sept/October that still had a few eggs in them that didn't get spawned out.

Maybe I'm the one who is wrong and need to be brought up to speed but I see zero reason for anybody to be concerned that the crappie having eggs now means an early spawn. The spawn will happen when the crappie get the correct water temps and conditions. I think we all need to worry much more about the Corps messing with lake levels when those conditions are met.

**kyjohn** · 01-01-2014, 12:53 PM

Hancock is showing Ky Lake surface temp at 44 right now. Don't think we have to worry about spawning activity for a while. I seem to always catch some fall crappie with eggs, but never have thought of it as a sign of an early spawn. I'm like you m r ... maybe I'm wrong too???

**CrappiePappy** · 01-01-2014, 02:46 PM

Ya'll are correct !! The presence of eggs is no sign of an impending early spawn, nor is it a sign of TWO spawn periods in one year (another concern that has been mentioned in the past, on this site)

Water temps dictate "when" ... water conditions/levels will dictate "where".

I've even caught Summer Crappie with the beginnings of an egg sac, as well as early Summer Crappie with "leftovers". If conditions are not conducive to spawning, the eggs/milt will be reabsorbed ... survival instinct will not allow the nutritional protein to go to waste.

... cp

**chaunc** · 01-01-2014, 06:21 PM

I've caught them all year with eggs in them. Definitely doesn't mean an early spawn.

**CrappieCatcher13** · 01-01-2014, 06:36 PM

All the Crappie I've been catching here lately are full of eggs, I had wondered the same things i hadn't never thought much about it.

**crossarm** · 01-01-2014, 09:04 PM

I wasnt concerned, just curious

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