Ross Barnett fish still haven't spawned?

[macpappy]

I admit it...I'm confused. This is the 1st chance I've had to go fishing in 3 weeks so I knew my best chance would be to start on the river ledge and go from there. I tried in the 10-12 ft of water and nothing. Went up on the ledge where it jumped up to 6' and BAM! Start catching some good fish. Wind got up so I had to move. I thought to myself if they are shallower there surely they will be where they started going shallow late March. Only caught 2 there. I knew I had a good mess, so i came on home to play with my kids around 10 am. Got home and cleaned them and all the females were still full eggs. Males are still Black as you can see in the pictures. I don't believe the females with the eggs are gonna spit them out. Hope I'm wrong but they are not even in spawning areas. All the fish are full of small shad as well. They are really healthy.

[CliffordN]

Are the egg sacks yellow or orange?

[4THETHUMP]

I KNOW YOU SHOULD HAVE HAD SOME WITH THOSE WE CAUGHT THE OTHER DAY . THEY'RE NOT ORANGE YET . I THINK THEY ARE LAYING IN SIX TO EIGHT FOW . I BEEN CATCHING SOME IN 8 TO 10 FOW OF WATER BLACK MALES AND FEMALES MIXED .

[Snubby]

One of those years, seeing odd behavior up North as well. Although, we are still a good bit low on water levels here from previous years (hope we fixin' to get to summer pool by end of this week). The best (thickest) fish I have been catching this year are mostly black crappie, in a lake I never really catch black crappie on other than every now and again. The bigger white crappie seem to still be doing there own thing in shallower water possibly, although I suspect most laid out by now, go figure Nice catch by the way!!

[macpappy]

More orange than yellow

[MidMsAngler]

I caught the majority of my spawning fish this year in 6-10 fow. I did catch some smaller fish and a few decent ones up shallow around he yacht club and a few other typical areas but the majority of my healthy females came from deeper water this year. And I don't mean prespawn. Like Ken said, I believe these fish were actively spawning in the deeper waters. I had heard of some good catches up shallow early in the season but I didn't have many.

I, too, have caught more black crappie in the lake down here too, Snubbys. First time in a long time for me.


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[CliffordN]

I think a lot of fish are reabsorbing the eggs...

[SlaterSlinger]

Not a doubt in my mind the rez fish were spawning in 5 + FOW on the days I fished it. The shallows were too warm.

[Donald@CrappieLogic]

Mother nature has messed with them since February

[Up2Early]

Here's one I caught today. Fished ledges similar to the original post. They've been holding at different depths on the ledge on different days. They were deeper this morning.

Males are dark. Females don't have the pooch belly but they're actively spilling.