Brown eggs :(

Crappie on Wilson Lake on the Tennessee River for the most part missed out on the spawn this year due to cold water. I cleaned 23 females today and only one had yellow eggs. The rest were all Brown. This is the 2nd year in a row which is not good at all for the fishery. These fish were suspended in 40 feet of water at 22 feet and were very eager to grab the minnows i was feeding them. I think maybe < 5% of the fish ive caught showed signs of spawning this year and they were males in shallow water. The water never warmed up above 62 until today where it reached 68 at around noon. I also noticed the lake was turning over as a coffee colored stain was all over the lake which happened around noon as well. If im not mistaken once the eggs are brownish tan they are no longer viable eggs and will be reabsorbed.

You are correct , the brown or tan color in eggs indicate loss of blood keeping them alive .Strange they dont just dump them rather than re-absorbing them.Thats pretty deep for them to be with the water in the 60's.Sounds more like a mid summer or mid winter depth, you never know where they gonna be that's for sure !! I think the same thing happened here on Guntersville,with maybe a quick early spawn for a few of them but the majority started when our water got to 67 around March 10 then the temp nose dived to 58 and its just now reached that again , causing them to hold on to the eggs too long. Our hope on the big G now is that the 2014 spawn was really big, as all winter lots and lots of 7 to 8 inch fish were caught pretty much all over .If the 2016 spawn failed then we will not see many small ones in 2018. Hope time proves me wrong!