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Do you all think the fish have finished spawning in north Alabama (i.e., wheeler, G'vill, etc)???
About 2 weeks ago I started catching larger fish off laydowns that I had assumed were in the process of making beds and moving into the shallows to spawn....been kinda dead since then.
Any thoughts or help?
This is my opinion and I hope I'm wrong but I think generally that the early spawners ,which are the bigger fish usually, started when the water was 65 to 67 back in early march ,but I do not think they got to finish as the water quickly cooled back down to 58 and it has never reached the 65 needed on the big G since it fell so quick , this forced them to go back into deeper water to wait for a warm back up that never really occurred and confused them . The 3 females I caught from under a bridge Saturday on the Big G in the wind had eggs half gone and they were not the bright yellow color with blood in them but a light tan color which usually means they are dead and the fact that I caught them under the bridge tells me they are done and returning to feed there till the water gets to warm. I hope they were not the norm for the female population but that's why I feel the spawn hasn't gone well on the big G. Yes I have seen a few catches posted that would indicate some places they did do ok but the over all catching wasn't exciting or maybe a lot of the people that post here kept it on the down low HA.....There should be small spawns from now till the end of April with the smaller fish getting into the act. The good news is that they all do not spawn at the same time so maybe the late bloomers can save the day if the big girls and boys didn't have a good spawn. Better news based on the number of 7 and 8 inch crappies all this late winter and early spring , 2014 must have been one heck of a spawning year and next fall should be super after these small fish get to feed on a summers worth of shad fry!!
There still spawning on all the lakes around here. I would think it still going on. Just because you caught some shallow doesn't mean that they we're spawning. I caught them Saturday on the banks at wedowee and it's a hour south of Guntersville. When there spawning they will be very close to the bank on rocks or sand.
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I share the same opinion as snapperking. I only fish wheeler and the water level dropping out simultaneously with temp drops in march hurt up here scattering them deep and shallow. Though I seldom catch cooler fulls when I fish, I would say 2/3 of the fish I have caught this year were in the 7-8 inch range so it's got to pickup.
Already spawned? I hope not. For the past two weeks, I haven't found any fish shallower than 15 feet - and I've hit the usual spawning spots I know. I just don't think the bulk have come shallow yet. But three days of 70F temps with no rain should certainly trigger the event.
Wilson spawn hasnt even got started yet, just small males on the banks. Im guessing they are the same river wide. They Temps need to be steady 65 and they have not been that at all. Some mornings the water temps have been upper 50s. The females i catch are still in prespawn areas, mouths of coves in deep water and along main creek channels in deep water (20-30 ft).
Ponds, sloughs and some backwater areas have warmed enough for the Crappie to spawn. In big lakes like Wheeler most Crappie haven't moved up into the shallows yet. I haven't found any Crappie that have fanned out beds yet, mostly larger fish that have staged early. I think we only need a week of warm sunny weather, that will put the shallows in the upper 60's in the afternoons and the spawn will happen fast.
how long does it take them to spawn? 2 wks in March over 70 t degrees days and almost 60 degrees night and a few days in the 80s ?...?..? Water temp was 66-68 several days.??? That was surface temp in 6 fow and lots high water then too .what would the temp be in 2 fow?
I would have to agree with ditch basser. I'm and hour south of you and it's almost over here but if you're water is in the 60s its probably going to happen. I believe I could find some on bead now.
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These are all great replies! Thanks guys.
Another questions.... I have crappie in the pond behind my house and there were about 15-20 of them all on beds...I couldn't tell if they were males making the beds or the female laying the eggs, but they would NOT touch anything. They were only 5-8 feet off shore in 1-2 ft of water and I'd put the bait right in front of them and they wouldn't touch it.
So the question I have is, will crappie not bite when they are on the bed laying eggs (assuming the fish I saw were females)?
The hardest fish to catch are the ones you can see!!! Unless they are gills on the bed . Try # 2 gold crappie hook 4 or 6 lb floro carbon line and minnow. Hook the minnow in the mouth . Hopefully you can cast him free lined no weight or float to the beds and let him swim like that where they are ............ if you don't catch some of them then you probably need dynamite (grin) It may take a few minutes but eventually one fish will start at the minnow and another one will see it and will try and beat him to it. Its possible they see you on the bank and it has them skittish too. Might try casting and laying down or putting the rod in a holder and moving away . My second choice would be a very small spinner bait like a 1 /32 road runner cast from a long distance lined up to come thru the bedding area. Last choice, a small hair jig1/64th or 32nd with no cork. Changing the subject if it were my pond id do everything I could to remove ALL the crappie because if you don't already, you will have a population explosion with that many nesting crappie . In a few years you will have thousands of crappie about 6 inches long with big dime sized eyes because they are over populated and not enough food unless you are putting about 20 dollars worth of minnows in the pond a month. 1 mature female crappie= 40000 eggs and if only one tenth hatch and half of them survive , that will be 2000 fish from one momma........... you got 10 girls doing the same thing , in one year you got 20000 little fry .......... in 3 years you got 60000 from the old mommas alone , but now their first year 2000 daughters and sons are ready to have broods.............. .If only half are female that's 1000 times 2000 new surviving babies= 2 million babies.......... If you have 2000000 catchable fish you would have to catch over 5400 A DAY every year to stay even !! That is why biologist say never put crappie in any pond even if its 10 acres . On the other hand I know some ponds where there are some nice crappie to be had as well as a few with the big eye little fish problem
You are making it sounds like catching 5400 crappie per day is a bad thing??? lol
5,400 six inch Crappie a day is a problem, LOL.
I've fished a 4 to 5 acre pond once that was full of huge Black Crappie. A locale said it had stayed that way for 20 plus years. I think the key in this pond was it was also very heavy populated with pound and a half to two pound Bass. When I say heavy, I mean catching a 100 plus in an afternoon with a small spinner. Spannerking is correct, 99 percent of the time you'll just have a pond over populated with tiny Crappie. The reason it works in the sloughs and back water areas is during high water you get a big toilet flush moving many of them out.
And folks are fretting over the crappie becoming over fished!!!!!!! Lol
And to think I was trying to be conservative with my numbers. I have a guy I work with that showed me a limit of crappie he caught out of the "pond across the road from his house, all of them around a lb. He doesn't know how long they have been there ,maybe they go sterile after awhile HA
Catching 5400 crappie out of a pond would be a good thing, catching that many out of the big G or Weiss or any impoundment would be bad when the Man showed up !! .How many crappie do you think might have been caught the 4 weekends in February and March on Weiss with all those long liners?? Good thing they do put out thousands of eggs!!
Yeah, Spider Riggers are taking a lot of the Crappie in my area. A lot of people say that's cheating. I've never done it, but would like to try it. lol.
Thank you guys for this info. I been wondering why they haven't been biting. One day last month (middle of the month) I went and I was there from 6AM-9AM and reeled in 18! Not more than 2 since then. The storms, all this rain makes the water very muddy-looking, cold fronts aren't helping either. I fish in Columbiana, AL and every time I go these guys with boats say they catch limits every day, but I can't seem to get a bite in the shallow waters of 4-5ft deep off the Pier (it's a slough that feeds off the main lake). I've tried jigs and spinners ... not one bite. So I just go with minnows and a Rocket Bobber (2 poles in the water). I'll keep watching the weather and see if it stays 70F for at least 3 days with no rain and I'll go back out there.
Thanks again.
Go to laylake (dot) info/Weather/
Tell me what you guys think please.
That why I use a float a lot for this. You have to keep it in there bed like bass fishing. Also right before dark they will hit good . If you can see them they can see you too. Get far as you can from the and use a unweighted float. They want always take it under most of the time your float will turn sideways.
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I did get a few bites using the float-n-fly method. 1/16 oz pink/silver sparkle curl tail crappie grub and a 2.0 Orange pegged float, reeling it in medium speed. But the minnows, they wouldn't touch. I'll watch that link I provided above for the lake I fish in and wait for 3-4 straight warm days then I'll go. If you look at next week, 5 days in the 70s and 80s but with more rain :Doh:Quote:
Originally Posted by lowe175