started crappie fishing about 6 yrs. ago and I can not buy a crappie. always heard the full moon in april was the spawn. never seen it like this. doe's anybody think the next full moon is it or does the water temp has a play in it, the high'est ive hit has been 57 on 4/22/15
They don't spawn all at once. And water temp is critical,,,so critical,,that it will affect full moon cycles. Everything is behind this spring. Mushrooms,,,turkeys acting normal in my area,,trees blooming out,,just go north of Bloomington and look at the woods, the undergrowth,,the bloomed out dogwood, redbud in the deep woods. Mayapples coming up, the lushness of undergrowth is sparece the farther north. Its been cold, and several frosty mornings. I even had a farmer tell me that there was going to be several more frosts this spring as the temps are below normal. Even look at people and how late their gardens are being worked up and yet to be planted. In small ponds and lakes,,,temps are also warmer than larger lakes, so there will be early spawning there,,but not yet. Just my 2 cents.
May have been a few crappie up, but with the fronts, cooling water, high water, and pulling water, its not been right in the resevoirs. Couple of weeks maybe with stable weather.
Fished a small lake in Sunman today, the females I cleaned had huge egg sacks, bigger than Ive seen so far this year. My buddy has fished this lake for a few years now and we where talking about how late the spawn is today, the temperatures have been up and down but mostly cold, think it was 30 Thursday morning, I know the water temps have been right but it hasnt started here in Sw Ohio or Se Indiana form what Ive seen and heard.
I still can't even hardly catch crappie in a small farm pond I fish that is loaded with nice sized ones. It has been just a couple here or there for the last month. They have definitely not spawned yet in the pond, and until this past week the water was fairly warm. Here in Southern Indiana down next to the Ohio River I had to mornings this week that were in the 20's. Burnt leaves up on the trees and in the flower beds, from the freeze. Lots of others just fell off. With all the rain and fronts we have had lately. I don't think they know to move up, stay down, wind their watch, or scratch their butt.
Two weekends ago the youngest and I caught several nice 12" plus. But since haven't been able to get many without dragging a jig right into their nose! I don't know whether or not they have spawned, but I do know this has been a weird year.
Went back to the before mentioned farm tonight, and could barely get a bite from anything. Finally caught 7 small bluegill, two largemouth (one on a white roadrunner head and Bobby Garland Monkey Milk swimmr, & the other on a old top water frog. Had several others roll at the frog and bite short, but none really take like the one I caught) and didn't catch a single crappie. Tried live minnows, grub tails on jigs, several different roadrunner combinations and nothing would produce a crappie. This pond usually produces good crappie numbers and fairly good sized ones also, along with nice bluegill & largemouth. Everything is off this Spring with all the rain and temp swings.
went yesterday morning , water temp 61, caught 14 and 9 was full of eggs. it kind of has me warndering if this full moon might be it.
I meant to give an update when I got home early afternoon, but other things came up. So my daughter and I went to a county park lake this morning here in Harrison County. It is about 10 acres or so, and we got there at 8:30. Started by the dock, worked our way around to the dam, then proceeded on around the whole lake fishing from the bank. About 20 minutes after we got there my daughter caught a small largemouth on a minnow. One other bite in the area, but didn't bite hard. About our third stop around the lake I got a couple small bites but nothing really hit hard. Then my daughter caught about a 15" largemouth on a minnow again. I then caught a largemouth about 12" long on a minnow. This was about 9:30 when we caught those two. I had one bite the rest of the day and my daughter had none, we fished until a little after noon. We were using minnows, bee moth, and I was throwing different Roadrunner variations. I kept scanning the banks and could never even find any small bluegill up close. We finally got around to the Southside of the lake since the sun was up and BAM!!! All the sudden it looked like the surface of the moon. Bluegill, redear, & largemouth were on nests everywhere. For probably a 1000' of bankline, just one after another after another. I do not know the water temp, but it was definitely a fair amount cooler than the farm pond I was at Saturday night. Similar results though. So them being on the nest explains to me why I can't catch much. I was hoping they would hold off another lunar cycle, but I guess not.Quote:
Originally Posted by new slab hunter
The answer to the original post is NO. I'm in IL farther south than any point in IN and am catching crappie with eggs that are not quite ready to drop yet. Wierd weather patterns have had them just moving hard onto brush this past few days. Think they'll go this week. As for 'gills. Some on the beds but think they'll go twice this month with the early date of the 1st full moon.