Happy! Happy! Happy!

Every spring I hold my breath to see how TVA will manage the water levels during the crappie spawn on KY and Barkley lakes. We have had too many years where the crappie hit shallow water to spawn then the powers that be pull the plug, leaving the spawn on the bank.

Last year TVA couldn’t be blamed for the surface temperatures not rising to spawning conditions until AFTER many big females had given up and headed back to deep, offshore cover. No all but many big females just reabsorbed their eggs. Obviously some crappie successfully spawned due to the numbers of 5-8 inch crappie.

Today was the day I had been waiting for, proof the big females had deposited their eggs in stable water levels. We caught and dressed several big crappie that had very few eggs left.

Mother Nature will take care of the new fry if water levels will remain stable.

These crappie were caught on PICO INT cranks in 15-25 feet of water.