Thread: Late Spawn?

I've been fishing Degray -- we caught a bunch of big crappie over the weekend in 14-18 feet of water on brush and stick-ups. Many were males with bloody tails, many were females full of eggs, some females were already spawned out, some of the females were obviously spawning.

I've never seen them spawn this time of the year. Some friends of mine fished hurricane lake in Benton last week, they caught a nice mess -- they were full of eggs and in 3 feet of water.

Are any of the rest of you catching fish that seem to be spawning? Is it just late this year from the cold weather in February?

Thanks.

I checked DeGray the other day and all my spots were way too deep. The water temp tells me the spawn is all but over but I am confident most of them got the job done somewhere. The last three year's flood made for great spawns. I think this year was just a good one compared to the last three.

On Greeson I normally catch crappie real shallow during the spawn, however this year I didn't. But what's different this year is early spring got little rain, the lake was very stable and the water in the shallows got gin-clear. I believe they spawned out in a little deeper water (6-8) than normal. I have been fishing the same pattern for many weeks now 8-12 deep. Another thing that tells me that's what has happened is those who cast jigs for crappie caught more this year than they have in years past. In years past I was able to long pole them out of the shallows, whereas those who bass fish for crappie didn't get to them well. This year when they would cast to the bank they would retreive their jig over the beds of the crappie who were spawning a bit deeper this year.