Missouri Conservationist Magazine this months issue

They have a column each month that is called Ask the Ombubsman. In it this month there was a interesting question that I thought I would share with everyone.

Q: I recently caught several crappie from the Lake of the Ozarks. When I was cleaning them, I noticed that some had egg sacs with eggs. Do crappie spawn in the fall?

A: It is not unusual to find immature eggs in female crappie or other fish at this time of the year. Although greatly diminished in size outside of the spawning season, female fish retain their egg sacs (ovaries) that contain eggs that will mature in the future. In crappie, those eggs will be held until spawning in late March or April of next year. The mature eggs will be located near the center of the ovary, with progressively less-mature eggs toward the outside. The spawning will begin with the right combination of day length, temperature and water level in the lake.