Thread: spawn

Originally Posted by Crappie Chatt

Every year about this time the discussion of when the 'spawn' is for crappies. Again, most fishers are confused about the difference of 'shallow' crappies as to 'nest building' shallow crappies. There is a BIG difference!!! If you will look at the threads from last year,,, they look just exactly as these threads. Trust what the biologists say, and they will say the
'spawn' happens when the combo of water temps and photo period comes together for best hatching. Believe me they are not nest building under 60 degrees. Make up your own theories about this if you must but,,,, try not to confuse the issue. JMO <*)}}}><

Better yet, look at the scientific publications and try to disprove the findings. Photoperiod is the major factor for all fish spawns and water temperature will dictate diurnal activities.

Originally Posted by Crappie Chatt

Every year about this time the discussion of when the 'spawn' is for crappies. Again, most fishers are confused about the difference of 'shallow' crappies as to 'nest building' shallow crappies. There is a BIG difference!!! If you will look at the threads from last year,,, they look just exactly as these threads. Trust what the biologists say, and they will say the
'spawn' happens when the combo of water temps and photo period comes together for best hatching. Believe me they are not nest building under 60 degrees. Make up your own theories about this if you must but,,,, try not to confuse the issue. JMO <*)}}}><

Chatt I would have to agree with you on this. From my experience the photo period dictates the time frame of when the spawn may occur, temperature is secondary. You need to have the right temperature in the right time frame.

For the past couple weeks I have been catching crappies in 2-6 FOW and so have others. I was out at the lake the other day and it was a little slower than it had been had to really work for them, a gentleman asked me "you think they are about done". I look at my depth finder afternoon water temp was 55. I'm thinking about done what??? eating?? I knew he was talking about the spawn and I told him what the water temp was and that he had plenty more good days to come. That was last Friday.

I was at the lake Sunday and caught some males that had color and were starting to shred the tail that wasn't really that much of a suprise to me as the water temp was 57 and I've known large males to move in and start first (these were large 13"+).

This is where it gets interesting though we got about an inch rain Sunday night. I went back out Monday after work water temp was 62 on north bank and 60 on south and we nailed them again this time they were about 90% males and most of them had color a couple of them were MILKING when I cleaned fish that night most of the females that I did catch were stacked full of eggs except one....I thought it was a male at first but no sperm sack then I found a bloddy egg sack that was basically empty. She had already dumped here eggs. These are white crappie. The lake has balck crappie as well but they have showed no signs of spawning activity.

Its been my experience at this lake and others that the biggest fish always spawn out first. I'm concerned that when the weather straightens out there won't be much of a bite from big fish.

Originally Posted by crappiedoc

Kirwin Reservoir / Region 1 / Fishing Locations - Public Waters / Where to Fish in Kansas / Fishing / KDWPT - KDWPT

So why the big size difference on the crappie? 2"-5" Why do the pond crappies spawn so much sooner?

Craig can probably explain the size difference best but I will give it a shot. On the bigger resivoirs the water temps in the upper ends raise much faster and you can see 60 degree plus water temps in early to mid April. The lower end near the dam warms much slower and the 60 degree mark may not hit until the first couple weeks of May. The best real live example I can give you is when I used to fish Tuttle Creek a lot. The upper end coves would always have fish starting to spawn somewhere between April 10th - 20th depending on the weather that year. The marina cove would have fish spawning as late as the last week of May first week of June. That could maybe explain your size difference.

Originally Posted by crappie_hunter15

Craig can probably explain the size difference best but I will give it a shot. On the bigger resivoirs the water temps in the upper ends raise much faster and you can see 60 degree plus water temps in early to mid April. The lower end near the dam warms much slower and the 60 degree mark may not hit until the first couple weeks of May. The best real live example I can give you is when I used to fish Tuttle Creek a lot. The upper end coves would always have fish starting to spawn somewhere between April 10th - 20th depending on the weather that year. The marina cove would have fish spawning as late as the last week of May first week of June. That could maybe explain your size difference.

You're onto it. Now as for photoperiod, what about Texas and Oklahoma, look where those two are at in their spawns, same photoperiod though.

i was on the water monday from sunrise til one o clock. i found 59 and 60 degree water on upper end of lake and also found big females out in 4 to 6 for in those areas. One of them i caught in less than 2 ft of water as i swung my boat to turn around and dipped on some brush. I didnt expect that so much. All lakes are different i think... Spawn is gettin close... Some fish may be more ready than others rt now.

Originally Posted by crappiedoc

You're onto it. Now as for photoperiod, what about Texas and Oklahoma, look where those two are at in their spawns, same photoperiod though.

I've often wondered the same thing. I'm not a Wildlife Biologist but I have a pretty good Biology back ground. The best way I could rationalize that statement is by the fact that animals adapt to the enviroments they live in over time. For example whitetail deer accoss the US. They are all the same speices but are different in many ways because of the enviroments they live in. Over a long enough time frame and with extreme differences in enviroments enviroments they would develop into multiple different species.

Anyway enough with that back to the crappie my theory is if you brought crappie from Texas and introduced them into a Kansas water with no other fish present I would bet you their spawning pattern would be all sorts of messed up because over time genetic traits have been developed by those those fish that proper spawning temperatures occur at "X" time.

Again just my thoughts above I think Craig could shed more light on this subject. Hopefully he sees the thread I would be very interested to hear what he has to say.

They have not spawned here yet. They were staging late march in 6 feet with cover...this cold snap and rain has moved them back out. I suspect when it warms up the next couple weeks the shallow bite will be on.

Spawn is such a relative term, I use the word more for location + presentation anyways.