Likes: 
Thanks: 
HaHa: 
Reply With QuoteYou just confused me.Thinkin I'll just keep doing what I do.
Now I gotta get some orange jigs.
Crappie.com 2K Star General
The spawn as I've learned it
Every year I see people on here asking in late January about water temps and spawn activity. The best way I can put it is that it's like someone's pregnant wife. If she is 7 months pregnant with the last 3 months of cold weather and then you get a week of 70 degree weather, is she going to drop that young'un? NO! She doesnt drop when it feels right, she drops when the baby is mature enough. It's the same with fish and animals. It doesnt matter what the water temp is. I've seen them spawn when the water temp was in the 50's and lower. Yes the prime for US to find them shallow is 60-65 degree water, but if we cant find them, they still spawn just in deeper water. I've noticed that the spawn happens a little earlier the further south you go and that the smaller lakes will heat up and the spawn happen faster. Grand Bayou and Poverty Point will spawn before Darbonne, Red River, or Toledo Bend. I dont look for spawning fish ever in central La until the last 2 weeks of March (mostly on Red River cause there isn't any competition.)
As far as baits, you don't have to buy some special $2 or $3 baits over the internet to catch fish. The BEST spawn bait is anything orange (my little known fact). I buy Spike it dip and glow and make my own out of old tubes or panfish assassins. Experiment with different colors being dyed, cause some colors except the orange better than others. Don't be confused by so called jig tieing experts that show pics from 3years ago and then tell you that you cant catch them without their fancy special jig. People get snookered every year on here by con artist trying to get rich. ANYTHING ORANGE will catch as good or better than ANY fancy $3 jig. I make hair jigs but dont sell them, so I have nothing to gain from this note.
Hope this helps someone with the spawn a little.
Skipper
Catch and Release: Catch the slabs and Release the little'uns
Crappie.com Legend
You just confused me.
Crappie Wall Hanger II
Originally Posted by Mo'nBack
I read that. Then, I read this:
I'm just going to have to go ahead and disagree with you there. Water temp and full moon. The end.I've noticed that the spawn happens a little earlier the further south you go and that the smaller lakes will heat up and the spawn happen faster. Skipper
Crappie Wall Hanger II
IMO The best thing to do to stay on fish consistently is keep a detailed fishing log. There's not a fishing report or science that can give you exactly what the fish are going to do. Nobody knows what a crappie is thinking but another crappie. You can get within a few days and sometimes hit it year to date almost every time when the weather conditions/water conditions are similar from a previous year with a log. This allows you to ALWAYS hit it when a particular area is having fish move in there, and not be a day or 2 late and hit that area after Joe told you about it and the fish are on their way out of that area. ( He went and caught 40, you got up there 3 days later after getting his report and caught 3). If you hit every good hole on the lake spot on the date they begin moving in there to feed, you're in for one heck of a year. With this documented, you're likely to repeat year after year. Technology today (Smartphones) allow somebody to have that info in a spreadsheet for availability while on the lake. I just find this to work way better than going off of what other fishermen say the fish are doing as you know the exact coordinates basically as to where you were that day, others don't. Often times this matters greatly. Way more rewarding and you waste a lot less time looking for fish.
W
Last edited by waxnslabs; 02-08-2013 at 11:23 AM.
Crappie Wall Hanger II
Interesting. Never had it explained in such a way. Orange is a really good color. I have some brown and orange jigs....I'll try em and see. The only question I have is about some con artist here trying to sell something to get rich. I haven't seen anything of the kind here and I'm sure that it wouldn't fall through the cracks.....Good luck with the orange jigs...SLIP
Crappie.com 2K Star General
If it snows into Feb here and cold temps thru March, would there be a spawn and when? Yes there would and it would be within 3 weeks of when it normally does, no matter what the water temp. or the moon phase.
Catch and Release: Catch the slabs and Release the little'uns
Crappie Wall Hanger II
P matnle, the water temp was 63* last week at larto and the fish sure weren't spawning. The eggs have to have time to mature first. Everyone jumps the gun a bit. The water temp is crucial when is is sustained for a few days. When the water warms the fish move up to prepare. Then a cold front comes through and moves them back out. This happens many times over the coarse of 2 months. They will spawn when the eggs are mature and the water temp is steady, weather it is January or April.
Crappie Wall Hanger II
OK, but I'm not sure why you're addressing this to me.
Trophy King II
BlackWidow, I dont have a comment about the spawn but the man fishing under your post just cracks me up.
Trophy King II
Spawning = laying and fertilizing of the eggs. Just because a fish is caught shallow and its full of eggs doesn't mean it was spawning. The females spend very little time near the actual bed and really just go in and lay the eggs and have the male fertilize the eggs and then they guard them. The female is gone after that. Most of the fish are males that are caught in really shallow water that are guarding or building the nest before the female gets there. That is a good point made about a woman being 7 months pregnant actually but not all fish are ready to lay eggs at the same time. Crappie on a lake like D'arbonne may lay eggs as early as February and some may even go into late April. This is nature's way of keeping the species going. If every crappie spawned on say March 1 and some sudden drought/flood/natural disater was to happen, then that whole age class would go away, or if they all laid on Feb 15 and a freeze came along that would wipe that class out. Also, there are always fish that 'move up' when water temps warm up but doesn't mean they are laying eggs or nest building. They just want to get in that warmer water. A 3 foot flat at 63 degrees in January beats staying in a 25' hole that is 50 degrees! This is why you see people catching crappie on yoyos in 2 feet of water in the middle of January. A few warm days in January/February will have the fish in either shallower water or way up in the water column. Even a really warm day in say December will have em coming way up. It seems like just last year or the year before there were people catching crappie shallow in Larto in January.
You can even see this in saltwater fish escpecially speckled trout. In the wintertime when the air temp is cold early and then warms up in the day, the fish get real shallow at times. You start out catching them in the deep holes and as the day progresses the fish move onto the flats and some days even in December/January you can catch trout on topwater baits in less than 3' of water
release in the grease
Posting Permissions
