Quote Originally Posted by Special K View Post
IMO there is a huge misunderstanding among many crappie fishermen as to finding females on or around bedding areas. I believe the males locate and construct bedding areas days or weeks before the actual spawn occurs. The big females only go in to these bedding areas for pre-spawn visits and to (later) lay their eggs and then they retreat back to the pre spawn transition areas where they generally hold until the fry (or what's left of them) joins them sometime later. In the meantime, males guard the beds and try to protect the eggs / fry for a number of days to about a week.

I believe this circuit can be and is repeated in the same area, (bedding area) and (others) more than once, because not all fish spawn at the same time... as you can see from those you caught in the outlying edges that were not quite ready to lay eggs yet. I also do not believe that all crappies spawn in the shallows as you might expect them to... but instead spawn in depths of 5 to 8 feet of water (and deeper) with agreeable substrate material such as sand or fine gravel mixed with grass and semi-cover. Also, I believe that females that do lay go into a bit of dormancy (or lethargy) following laying their eggs when they do not aggressively feed or bite for some time.

You asked and I opined. Great question. Just my theory based on my own research and experiences and nothing else.
Very good analogy.....