Thread: Spawn

I've been crushing crappie on every body of water from 1-6ft.. Lake Erie bay, local resivior (eaton), and pymy (last weekend).. I caught over 50 at each place, I actually filled my freezer by keeping 30 big ones (10 per spot). I fished on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday (thru the wind in my kayak- Friday) With this cold front hitting this weekend, well you got me there ha ha.. I don't know if they will go deeper or hold shallow. I will be back out next wed and get back (weather permitting). I have been hitting them mainly on live minnows, I tried jigs and fake twister worms with little action.. I am finally getting pretty decent at locating pockets of crappie! (Even tho they seem to be all over), but this site has given me so much advice on what to look for and it seems to be working.. I still find myself scratching my head on the bigger bodies of water a lot, but what I have been doing is drifting with a jig tipped with a minnow until I get a bite and dropping the anchor.. Once the anchor is dropped I try to catch the fish and see what was biting.. Luckily enough it's been crappie!

Originally Posted by sparkie51

Fished yesterday and only saw 2 other boats and they were bass boats. Very few shoreline fisherman. Not marking many fish shallow in main lake area, most fish are suspended over deeper water or buried deep in cover. Coming off the lake yesterday I stopped and threw a jig and tail at one of my honey holes and the fish wanted the jig slowly brought back to the boat and you had to be right in the cover to get a very light bite. The gills are on a good bite. Caught one on the old road bed at the prop area that took a whole 4 inch tail in it's mouth. It had the whole thing in it's mouth right up to the jig head.

Talked to a fellow at the launch who fishes Pymie at least 4 days a week and said the bite is very poor at Pymie right now.

Need some stable weather ,to get things going big time. To much wind, no wind, clouds, no clouds, cold or warm. The weather isn't real stable. With this cold front it should put a hold on the bite for a few days.

Went to Shenango with my brother and friend Saturday. Cool and wet day on the lake. We did manage to put around thirty keepers over nine inches in the box for them. Didn't get the chance to do a lot of looking for the bigger fish. That rain was a pain and we got cold after a few hours in it. Got them all in shallow water on jig and bobber. Ninety percent were blacks. May try to find the whites Monday.

Fished Pymatuning this morning went for eyes but they weren't cooperating. Stopped at a crappie spot I fished for years. Didn't mark any fish. Dropped the anchor and threw out a slip bobber rig. Before I could bait a second pole I had a crappie. Twenty minutes later there was 31 crappies released. It was a good time. Most came on a jig and tail right over the side of the boat in 13 fow. They didn't want any movement. Just keep it still and fish on. Wind came up and I left didn't want to fight the wind. All were between 9-12 inches and all males with sore tails.

I would be there tomorrow but blew a tire on the trailer going 60 on the way home and did a really bad fish tail on me. Had to change the tire in a persons drive way tire came off the rim. Scary!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Glad to hear that you're okay and congrats on a good day crappie fishing.

So it has been an odd year for me in NW Pa for crappie.. I have been catching crappie in decent numbers, but everything from a boat in a little deeper water.. Before I had a boat, I would fish the shallows from the bank and catch 100's of them spawning (assuming spawning). I live only miles from 2 of my great crappie spots, I check them daily and the land bite doesn't seem like it happened? Sure they got a few when the ice came off, but nothing with huge numbers.. Am I missing something? Did they not spawn yet? Usually I get them from shore around the 3rd week of April.. Our water temps have not reached 60 yet.. Matter of fact I'm sure we are only sitting about 55 where I am... Who knows! Im lost! Ha ha.

What lakes are you fishing? While at the Crappie Seminar last night, Dan Danmuellar said that his opinion is, that at Shenango Lake, that the crappie should start spawning in a week to ten days.

Don't feel bad for a lot of guys it's the same thing. Very few catches of large fish. Usually at this time I'm picking up large crappies while casting jigs for eyes but this year nothing. I'm not even catching them trolling. When you go around the lake and don't see many guys fishing you know something is wrong. Today when I started at 6:15 AM the water temp was 56 and when I left at 10 AM it waas already 62. The crappies should be in full spawn now.

Got word from the sports writers that Dan and Garrett caught over a hundred crappies spider rigging in the golden run area. Some had good size too. Had one real close to two pounds and quite a few over a pound. These guys are some of the best crappie guys on the circuit. Jigs tipped with minnows is what worked for them.