Thread: Predicting Crappie Behavior

Excellant post Darryl. I went to your website and copied the entire document to Word for future reference.

I do have a question for either you or Jerry. Last year we were catching "Black Crappie" in the shallow water either staging or spawning for about 3 weeks. We also have bamboo tops in 10 to15 feet of water on main lake flats, the "White Crappie" were in the tops offshore and many of the females were actually releaseing eggs when we brought then into the boat. Is it possible that the White Crappie were spawning in these tops out in the main lake? The tops of the bamboo are about 4 feet below the water surface.

Thanks for all the info. really enjoy the site.

Crappie.com is very fortunate to have members such as Darryl and Jerry and some of the other guides who unselfishly share there vast knowledge of crappie fishing with the other members.

No matter what activity one chooses to attempt,nothing comes close to experience. I know,without a doubt,that my crappie fishing has improved thanks to these guys sharing their knowledge

I know that I speak for a lot of members when I say thanks and keep posting those good tips!!

Originally Posted by Spiderman

Excellant post Darryl. I went to your website and copied the entire document to Word for future reference.

I do have a question for either you or Jerry. Last year we were catching "Black Crappie" in the shallow water either staging or spawning for about 3 weeks. We also have bamboo tops in 10 to15 feet of water on main lake flats, the "White Crappie" were in the tops offshore and many of the females were actually releaseing eggs when we brought then into the boat. Is it possible that the White Crappie were spawning in these tops out in the main lake? The tops of the bamboo are about 4 feet below the water surface.

Thanks for all the info. really enjoy the site.

Hey Spiderman:

Both species are said to spawn at about the maximum depth you can see a white object so unless your water was very clear I doubt the white crappie were spawning in 10 to 15-feet of water. I suspect they were staging there waiting for conditions to be just right for them to move to the shallows and spawn.

Crappie can hold their eggs for a long time but they can get so full that eggs come out when you catch them, especially if you're bringing them up from several feet deep because of the pressure change.

Apparently white crappie and black crappie have slightly different criteria for spawning, which I guess helps reduce hybridization. We have about equal numbers of both here and often find them spawning in the same area but usually we'll catch a majority of one or the other in certain areas on any given day depending on the conditions.

Thanks for the info. But Crappie are unpredictables and fickled as women at times.:rolleyes: Here on Nimrod last year we found males on the bank in mid March. But the real or main spawn was well into April with a few males still on the beds on first of May. This lake is bad about this as it's flood control and water level can swing wildly. The cold fronts also push spawning fish out very often.
You talked about water temp and Crappie moving deep in warm water. We use to troll the shallow flats(old farm fields) , water depth as shallow as 3' on Nimrod in hot summertime. Fishing spider rigs 18 to 24'' deep as the Crappie seemed to chase Shad schools.
I've found here also spawning Crappie does'nt always mean fishing the bank. Nimrod like some other places have shallow stumps along the channels in mid lake less than 3' of water. We pressure gets bad on weekends I pull out to hit these humps and also the staging fish as they all don't spawn at once .
Thanks again for the articles. Every body of water seems to have it's own quirks when it comes to figuring out Crappie.:D

Awesome post Darryl !!

Jigster

Thanx D for the insight, gotta make it crappie camp.

Be blessed

I make a motion to add this link to the archives section of this site. Definately good reading here.

An oldie but a goodie, some Buckeye thought I might wat to revive.