Thread: Spawn Opinion

Being a expert in my own eyes on Crappie and their spawning habits causes me to have a different theory. Temps were warmer than normal this year. This made the temps in the upper part of the water column be much warmer. When I was catching fish on the local lakes a couple weeks ago, the surface temps were above 60 degs however the fish 10 feet deep would come out of the water ice cold. Since it is now time for the spawn, the fish are making their way to the shallow water which is now much warmer than the optimal spawning temperature, so the fish will back out into slightly deeper water to have the comfortable temps while spawning. In other words. Same time of the years as every year, but not in the same places.

I will admit, I have never caught a crappie during the spawn so I may not be the expert I think I am.

That sounds like a good theory RCC!! I'll buy that until shown otherwise....

I caught 21 today about half were females and they were all full of eggs.The eggs werent mature yet so the spawn hasnt happened yet in northeast arkansas.

Originally Posted by slaters#1

later than normal imo. i primarily fish farm reservoirs (60-80 acres or less) and every female i have caught still had eggs. crappie are usually on the banks now, but they remain in the deeper water. haven't caught a single crappie in the brush so far. a bud at church told me yesterday the fish are leaving the brush for deeper water in the very large reservoirs (100 acres plus) he fishes. who knows what is actually happening?

... I'm down here in Kentucky and I would like to catch one crappie lol, but yea not in shallow here.

I think they will go early this year. Ice out was nearly a month early and the suckers are already 3 weeks ahead of their usual run time. If everything else is early, why not the crappie spawn. They are still deep here, but they should still be under ice!

The spawn is happeninig right now in NEA. I have a friend who is a biologist and he messaged me today and said today was the first day he saw crappie on the beds in the AGFC breeding pond.

I think here in Central Arkansas, with this weather and the full moon it's happening for the most part just in the last week or so and we are quickly heading into post spawn conditions.