White/Creamy Crappie Egg Sacks From (Females)

Craig, am wondering if anyone else is finding these eggs, in thier female crappies, that appear to be this creamy to white color? Fished melvern saturday and we caught 22 keepers that were all females with these egg sacks that appeared as if they were ready to absorb or lose them. Not one male was caught. And only one female had already spawned out, they were in 4'-10' hidden in heavy underwater cover. Would appreciate hearing about other fishers findings on pre-spawn females, and the color of the egg sacks. Have the majority already spawned and the rest going to lose thier eggs because of the unusual high early water temps. Hope not, probably should ask Craig or Kirk. And yes they were female egg sacks. The eggs inside looked more like mush with no discernable eggs, and hardly any bloodlines. Having now talked to a few other fishers, some are finding the same conditions. Appreciate any thing you may have to offer up! Thank You! DK

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Originally Posted by dkv

Craig, am wondering if anyone else is finding these eggs, in thier female crappies, that appear to be this creamy to white color? Fished melvern saturday and we caught 22 keepers that were all females with these egg sacks that appeared as if they were ready to absorb or lose them. Not one male was caught. And only one female had already spawned out, they were in 4'-10' hidden in heavy underwater cover. Would appreciate hearing about other fishers findings on pre-spawn females, and the color of the egg sacks. Have the majority already spawned and the rest going to lose thier eggs because of the unusual high early water temps. Hope not, probably should ask Craig or Kirk. And yes they were female egg sacks. The eggs inside looked more like mush with no discernable eggs, and hardly any bloodlines. Having now talked to a few other fishers, some are finding the same conditions. Appreciate any thing you may have to offer up! Thank You! DK

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DK,

My initial reaction was that you were looking at testes from a male crappie. I have not seen, nor heard, of anyone finding these types of eggs in crappie down my way. However, if the eggs are white and there are no blood vessels associated with the egg masses then those are dead eggs.

I checked with Richard, biologist for Clinton and Melvern reservoirs, and he has heard of these types of eggs being encountered by anglers but he hasn't seen any himself. The eggs he has seen have been the 'normal' appearing eggs.

I also checked with Tj, biologist at Perry, and he hasn't seen any crappie with eggs as you described. He too thought the description sounded like a dead ringer for the male gonads.

Do you happen to have a picture of the eggs in question? A visual would certainly help in this case.

I wouldn't say the majority of the spawn is over already. Tj said he hadn't encountered a whole lot of spawning going on up in his district but his prediction, like mine, is that things should get to popping this week if we don't have more major storms/fronts. It is likely that some fish have spawned early with the unusually warm temps but I would say it is way too early in the spawning season to think that the fish have missed their chance to spawn and are already absorbing eggs. Last year, we still had spawner females on the bank in late May-Early June in El Dorado.

Craig thank u for the response, I sure wish that I would of taken a picture of them, but I assure u all were females. I will take a picture next time for sure. I also have heard that there were females caught in the special olympics tourney at Clinton that were the same as I found. In my twenty some years of crappie fishing I've never seen male testes in a crappie that were as big as the size of one to two of my thumbs. Not intended to be smart ass. I hope that any more caught will be yellowish-gold w/large red bloodlines encompassing them. Much appreciated! DK