With the mushy mustard colored eggs,

Does this mean they are absorbing and won't spawn?

Hope to hear from the fisheries biologists on this one. Where you guys at '' D10 and Bigben7 ''?

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Yes they are absorbing their eggs. All fish species do this when conditions have not quiet right for the spawn. This spring the temps went up and down several times with some pretty big swings. Rather than just waste it energy on spawning in unfavorable conditioned, they reabsorb the eggs and convert that energy to growth. This is one reason why crappie populations are very cyclical. They have a pretty unpredictable spawn.

Thanks D10 - learn something new every day!

Interesting! Thanks for sharing.

Thanks D10, I thought that was what was happening. Some fish are still carrying healthy looking sacks, so is there a chance of them still spawning to some degree?

What about this happening on the small crappie?? (yes, I cleaned some small crappie with eggs like this in last few weeks)

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This will happen with all sizes. Crappie are like people, they are all a little different. If they started producingtheir eggs latter than the rest, they may still try to spawn this year. I will be doing some single pole sampling tomorrow on Conway. Hopefully I will be able to judge the condition of the females over there.