Sunburned & "un-spawned" Crappie

2 interesting observations from Melvern.

Many of the crappie have red on them as if they were human and spent way too much time in the sun.
Any idea what that might be?

A couple of days ago some females still had a surprising amount of eggs, a couple of them very runny eggs. In my 55+ years of crappie fishing I can NEVER remember seeing this condition in July. Any explanation to this very unusual condition?

Thanks Craig

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Originally Posted by eatmorfish

2 interesting observations from Melvern.

Many of the crappie have red on them as if they were human and spent way too much time in the sun.
Any idea what that might be?

A couple of days ago some females still had a surprising amount of eggs, a couple of them very runny eggs. In my 55+ years of crappie fishing I can NEVER remember seeing this condition in July. Any explanation to this very unusual condition?

Thanks Craig

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Red on a fish could be several things. Did you happen to get any pics? I forwarded your report the fish bio for Melvern and he hasn't had any other reports come in.

Crappie with eggs in July possibly the result of a botched spawn for those particular fish. Crappie are intermittent spawners and don't dump all their eggs at once. Favorable conditions may have passed them by before they dropped all their eggs. Timing of the spawn among individual fish can vary widely, some early and some late. Crazy weather can shake them up also and we've seemed to have had some goofy weather this year!