crappie pics

today when i went to the lake, i noticed the crappie were off the bite. most of the time when i go up there i catch 4 to 8 of these nice 11 or 12 inch crappie. today , just one, i had hooked a second one but it shook off the hook before i got it in the boat. as i was taking the pics of the one i got in hand, i noticed the tail seemed a bit ragged. do the crappie spawn like the bass, with the male making a nest with his tail? and does this mean they are spawning now? if so ...anybody got any ideas on how to get the to bite while it is going on ?... thanks :) http://www.imagehosting.us/imagehost...jpg/?id=529617 http://www.imagehosting.us/imagehost...jpg/?id=529619 http://www.imagehosting.us/imagehost...jpg/?id=528377

Good looking Crappies ... look healthy !! I'd say that water temps would tell more about whether or not your Crappie are spawning now, or recently finished.... more so than busted tail fins.
And yes ... the males make the nest & guard the fry. The females just deposit eggs into several different nests, then head back out to deeper haunts (staging area) .... they're joined by the males (after fry have dispersed from the nest area) and the "school" is reformed - then, after a short "recooperation" period, they start feeding and go back to their normal routine.
There isn't any "rub" marks on the tail of your pictured fish - so, it could have been a female ... or it could have been a male that had finished his duties some time ago. I catch Crappie with busted tail "spokes" (fins) all the time, during the year. I think there's lots of other reasons for this, other than nest fanning.
Tube jigs, Roadrunners, minnows ...... the usual Crappie baits, should get these fish to bite - but, you've got to get the bait near them. Being Black Crappie - they're probably relating to the weed growth, first .... then the timber. Depth will be determined by water clarity & the "light" factor (deeper or down in cover on bright days - shallow & scattered out more on overcast days). ........... luck2ya ........cp :cool:

Thank you crappiepappy, i guess i been annoying the bass too much to notice the crappie change thier habits. i was so use to the school (or one of the schools) moving into the mouth of the cove in the evenings. I was up there today and was shocked, i caught a crappie under a tree in the water...on a senko bass worm rigged wacky style. i thought they only went for minnows and baitfish type baits. i noticed it's tail was a bit ragged too. http://www.imagehosting.us/imagehost...jpg/?id=534468

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Originally Posted by stripmine1

today when i went to the lake, i noticed the crappie were off the bite. most of the time when i go up there i catch 4 to 8 of these nice 11 or 12 inch crappie. today , just one, i had hooked a second one but it shook off the hook before i got it in the boat. as i was taking the pics of the one i got in hand, i noticed the tail seemed a bit ragged. do the crappie spawn like the bass, with the male making a nest with his tail? and does this mean they are spawning now? if so ...anybody got any ideas on how to get the to bite while it is going on ?... thanks :)

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I catch them like that all the time too....nothing really out of the ordinary.

I've caught Crappie on several different crankbaits - caught one real nice Crappie on a 4" plastic Gene Larew's Craw - had a friend catch a 2lb'r on a Spinnerbait ...... and NOT EVEN fishing for them :eek: - but, when fishing for Bass :D The spinnerbait & crankbait fish were only a mild surprise ... but that "craw" fish - now that was shocker ...hehehe!!!
Nowadays, I'm not real shocked at catching ANY kind of fish on Any kind of bait ... not after catching so many "other" kinds of fish ("other" than what I was fishing for ...LOL!!) ........ cp :cool: