Prime spawn time for us in PA?

What do you guys think year in year out is the best time for the spawn here in Pa? Or at least the big move into the shallows.. On average?
im thinking about spawning crappie already. :fingerdance

If weather holds up you looking at mid march but with that said winter been a Bi#@% this year.

Actual spawn is mid May into June. Blacks spawn sooner that whites. But the water temps control it also. Chaunc is the man with the answers.

Read the article on the northern spawn in Crappie NOW | Online Magazine and Crappie Fishing Resource and you'll get the answers you're looking for.

Thanks chaunc

Thanks guys. Very good reading. I travel and fish a lot of different water. My main fishing and my business is Flyfishing for Trout and Steelhead. I do other fishing and spring crappie is my second choice. Southern waters of Virginia seem to be 2 or 3 weeks earlier then my Pa location. Also smaller lakes seem to warm earlier and I think can be fished a little before larger lakes. I follow fly hatches closely and can relate timing of hatches, vegetation sprouting and spawning fish. Just my opinion.

Water temperature is the most important thing I go by, but if you track it year after year, you will see trends on the lakes you fish and you can predict it based on the calendar. For me here in the southeast counties, small lakes might start fishing well in more of a shallow spawning/prespawn pattern as soon as you get a string of stable warm spring days in April that starts pushing water temps up... and then when it hits 60 around early May they are spawning big time. It usually winds down around Memorial Day with mostly males guarding nests by that point, but we've caught big females with eggs well into June.

Watch the dogwood trees. When they bloom the crappie are in the prime spawning period. I don't fish for spawning crappies but do all my crappie fishing for the prespawn fish. Once you get on a pattern and the right depth they are really just as easy to catch as spawning fish.