THE SPAWN ?

[smoothlures]

I have caught fish in the summer after the spawn with eggs. I don't think it's a develop and drop the eggs kind of thing. Those eggs do need a bit longer but that is a bunch of them!

[Ketchn]

i often wonder if they have to have color to do the deed myself ....
we are already seeing some male fish with rather developed milt sacks as well ....
of course they have no color and you cant tell til ya whack one .....
you ever seen a "for sure female" turn jet black after 30 minutes on the stringer ?
we have many times ....so then the question would be ....
why couldnt they turn it off and on like that in the water ?
inquiring minds learn ...closed minds dont ....
keep that in mind yawl

[doggone]

It varies geographically based on the distance from the equator. The main thing that helps to understand what's happening is to know whether you are catching pre-spawn or fish on the beds,or males guarding the bed. Or post spawn crappie. Not all of them spawn at the same time either. I would say that based on what I see around here the majority of people refer to the prespawn as the spawn. That's when the most fish are caught. They are in the general bedding area but not yet laid the eggs.

I fish long after most crappie fisherman call the spawn as officially over and may have even stopped trying to catch fish shallow. I am fishing for bluegill and redear. I am on spawning banks ,the ones with the right bottom composition and slope and location. I find that many times I will hit a crappie bed that is just outside of the gill beds,maybe just a little deeper,or has some stumps mixed in,or a few branches. Will catch females with broken egg sacks just about ready to lay. On Kentucky Lake as late as Memorial weekend some years.

Further North as late as June and even further North July.

The whole event when the first fish have the biological urge to start to move into and out of the general areas in prespawn feeding,until the last late fish have moved off and the beds are abandoned.....can take three or four months some years. And even then some fish will hang around just off the spawning beds and can be caught its just harder.

If the fish lay the eggs without the right conditions, the right amount of sunlight penetration,temperature, and protection from wave action and without a male to guard them they will not survive. Crappie start to develop eggs just a few months after they have laid them. I caught fish in Southern Illinois that have developed fish egg sacks in them in September....even though they just finished spawning in April and May. They will carry them all winter until the conditions are right.

I would think in warm fertile southern waters the lines would be really blurred. Maybe even more than one spawn? Your pre-spawn far enough south would start in Jan.- I would think and some fish probably lay in Late Feb. and definitely March.

If you have the time,and money ,you could follow the actual spawn periods from Jan. to July by traveling South to North.

[Ketchn]

nice right up brother ....i would tend to think alot of that is rather factual as well ....
i was wondering if the St. Johns fish were setting up myself ....lots of shredded tails at the weigh in looked like

[trypman1]

Water temp around- 64 degrees, They start! That's 64 at there spawning depth, not surface temp. Just my 2 cents.