Quote Originally Posted by slabbandit
I was wondering if the crappie spawning was more determined by the amount of daylight hours than water temp. alone.
The reason I say this is because it is the amount of daylight that hits a deer's eye that causes the does to go into an estrus cycle. I've read where deer farms limit the amount of daylight that a doe deer recieves and by doing this they can cause them to have up to 13 estrus cycles a year! Where do you think all that doe-in-heat urine comes from!
If you apply this logic to fishing it would make more sense that nature would protect the spawn by timing it with longer daylight incubation periods which just happen to coincide with water temps in the 65 degree range.
I'm sure hours of daylight have a lot to do with when the crappie get ready to spawn but I think temperature is critical and the females won't lay their eggs until it is just right and stable.