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The eastern central oxbows have had temps creep up to the low 70's.... Mound lake, horseshoe, etc... Here on mound lake, the crappie have turned off, since that cold front a couple of weeks ago. Now, we are catching bream up on the trees. temps got up to 75 yesterday & I only caught short fish. Only a few crappie are being caught by my neighbors, also. May need to move north to catch up on the spawn!
Randy, I went down to Tri County here at the dice yesterday and did not catch a fish in the shallows. I did catch 4 really nice ones 3 ft deep in 7 ft water on blk/chartruse. 3 females FULL of eggs (no blood yet) and one male jet black. Water temp was 75 in the shallows and 72 in 7' water. Not for sure what to make of this......very interesting....
From what I think...the crappie will hold off until they get the right temperature. Both lakes I was on this weekend had the same water temps, and the majority of the crappie were still deep or at least suspended over deep water. This cold front should put 'em back where they are supposed to be this time of year.
Randy was thinking about you today and your lack of post. Was wondering what happened to the fishing on Mound lake? Hope they turn back on for ya. You might try Little Maumelle this weekend for some jiggin action for a change of pace. I know LRJoe, Helms, and my crew did well last weekend. Trying to whittle out a little time to go this weekend.
I think the warmer than usual temps this last week warmed the water just a little more than usual for this time of year. Our water temp here on Nimrod got up to around 67 in the main lake area but I noticed today that it had dropped back down to 66.
We pretty much have the fish dialed in right now. Males holding in 5 to 6 feet water and females are out a little deeper at 9 to 12 feet. Males have some dark color but their tails aren't tore up yet from fanning the beds. Females are all full of eggs but they are still in between yellow and orange with little blood. The eggs are not loose yet either like when it's time to lay them.
We are not catching any fish in the real shallow water yet either.
I personally think that the timing of the spawn is triggered by the length of the daylight hours more than water temp alone. I believe that this would be nature's way of insuring a successful spawn. I think that this timing just happens to coincide with water temps around 65 degrees.
My buddy has already called me at work tonite and said that he will be back at the house in the morning to go out after them again!
Hey Randy, I don't know if it will work where you fish but here on Nimrod all our fish are relating very tight to the bottom. I'm wondering if this is not spawn related activity.
I have been setting out a double hook kentucky rig with 2 minnows 18" apart and 18" above the weight on the bottom and only the bottom minnow is getting hit.
You might want to give it a try where you fish. Stay in contact with the very bottom as you probe 5 foot on out to 10 or 12 feet deep. It's working for us, right now anyway.
Randy ,I don't think the spawn is started on Nimrod yet. Like David said they are deep . This rain or up coming full moon may trigger it. We are always a little behind other lakes here for some reason.:confused:
Thanks for the info everyone. Nimrod, Jim Shirley talked to a friend of his that said of Blue Mountain the spawn was done. His friend caught 40 fish, & most of his females were flat as a pancake. I'm gonna keep hittin' the water to search for them. I know that usually I have a couple of trees here at the house that always holds fish during the spawn, & they haven't held fish for more than 3 weeks. I fished horseshoe yesterday, and their fish still had some eggs, but the weird thing was their intestines were jet black, like they had been eating a bug hatch of some kind, like mayflies or something. I had to wash those fillets off. Sorry I didn't post any pics, they weren't hogs by any stretch of the imagination. I thought about Chris yesterday while fishing Horseshoe. The water is sort of dark... but clear. lots of cypress trees. We didn't have any minnows, but I had those fin's (bubble belly lookin grub) in pink. Those fish hit those pretty well. I had to change up several times to get on it. I went black/chart, blue/white, natural, even did swimbaits for a while. The fish were just real finicky. We finally ran into a group around noon, but they were mostly dinks. I wound up keeping 16, & threw back at least that many. I had the wife & sister-in-law with me, & they had a great time. I am always my wife's fishing guide. I told her yesterday I'm gonna take her to greeson & take a trip w/ jerry or darryl so I can take a break from guiding her!
I have been mift by this as well. I have been exploring new water (for me). But my usual tactics have not been producing. I have caught a few dozen fish in the last couple of weekends and all were males except for one. And she was the only good one I caught shallow. Maybe she was ready and the males were not. Happens at my house sometimes when there is a good movie on.
I plan on going to familiar waters this next week end so I can determine what is really going on.
DP
The females we caught sunday and monday are not ready yet. They had lots of eggs, but they were still pretty small and not developed completely.
I had a chance to fish today & used a hunch from yesterdays fish dressing. All of the fish I cleaned yesterday had really dark intestines. I was w/ the family @ w/mart, & looked for something a little bit different. We've had a mayfly hatch here in these parts, so I got some helgrammits & mayflies from arky (panfish creatures). I started off real slow, just like previous recent days... short fish after short fish. I decided to put on a mayfly, and pulled up to a tree... wham!! caught 5 straight. 4 of those fish were real short, but I found a pattern. It was still a slow day, but I wound up with 6 keepers, broke off 2 bass, & 3 bream. The throwback ratio was about 4-1 too. Still a whole lot of short fish. Of the 6 keepers, 3 females. They still had eggs in them, but they were runny, and one of my bigger females didn't have a full belly. Just about every cypress tree I pulled up to had aphids on the back side of the wind on these trees. Every time I got close, those things swarmed me. I was sort of surprised that the mayfly on a jighead worked, but it did. If anyone thinks to look around at what's flying around, you may decide to match that hatch. You wouldn't think that a 3/4lb. crappie would be going after bugs, but they did. One of the bass that broke me off was over 3 lbs, & he smacked that mayfly hard. Something to think about.....
I agree with Slabbandit on length of daylight triggering the spawn, it is that way with Deer rut, so I think the fish go by that too. The females I've been catching are full of eggs, and the water temp is in the 70's. They'll spawn around the first of april like they usually do. It's almost here.
Daylight hours may have some affect on when crappie spawn but the daylight hours have been increasing daily from Florida to Canada and I imagine the crappie in Florida have spawned and it will be another month or two before they spawn in Canada. Because of the way the earth tilts on it's axis the farther you go north the more daylight hours you have (in the spring and summer) AND the daylight hours also increase faster the farther you go north so if it's daylight hours that trigger the crappie spawn they should spawn in the north before they spawn in the south.
We're seeing some females that have laid a good portion of their eggs and some that haven't laid any yet. I think temperature is extremely important for crappie eggs to mature and hatch. Crappie start spawning as soon as the water is warm enough and will keep spawning on and off until the water gets and STAYS too warm. I think they will move in to spawn in stages depending on where they are on the lake and how fast the water where they are warms up. Female crappie have the ability to hold their eggs for a long period of time and don't "lay all their eggs in one basket". If the water gets too warm they will hold their eggs until they find cooler water or until the water cools back down.
The crappie in a shallow oxbow lake with stained water that warms up fast and gets too warm will probably finish spawning a lot sooner than crappie in a deep mountain reservoir that takes longer to warm up.
If you think the crappie on your lake have nearly finished spawning check deeper coves on the south side of the lake especially where the water is shaded most of the day and you'll probably find crappie still spawning several weeks longer than you'll find them on the north banks that get sun all day.
We can usually find crappie shallow in mid February after a few degrees warming in water temperature and we can usually find some shallow a week or two into May if we look in the right places.
The water was 70 yesterday and most catching fish were over brushpiles. Some that caught males said their fins looked worn. I caught nearly all females full of eggs. Can't believe they're not in the buckbrush unless they spawn in deep water this time.:confused:
Same again today ,mostly females 10 to 12' deep. The water was still 67 at day break ,no fish along the bank . I caught a bunch and they were full of eggs.:confused:
I went bass fishing today on the north end of our lake (which is separated by a levy), & caught a crappie on a white spinnerbait (1lb 10oz) out close to the boat. We caught a fair number of good bass today on spinnerbaits & worms. We decided to crappie fish for a couple of hours afterwards, & caught 5 crappie before we quit. The interesting thing is that water temps were 68-73 during the day. The big crappie that I caught on the spinnerbait had some eggs left in her, but not a bunch. They had also turned sort of a milky yellow color. Not orange like you usually see. The next mess of fish I get I'm gonna post some photos of the eggs if that's ok, to see what everyone's opinion of they are to see if they are pre/during/post. I'm no expert about what they look like, but I saw some eggs turn lighter after the spawning season last year, & heard they don't shake all of their eggs out. What Jerry has posted earlier seems to make sense about spawning in stages. I caught some nice males yesterday, but they didn't seem to have beat up tails. Still keep catching dinks here though. I've been off work most of the week, got to go back tomorrow, but may try for a little while this weekend. I'll try to get some egg posted on the next harvest.
I got stuck working yesterday but helped a buddy clean some fish from overcup last night & 2 of the females we cleaned must of just layed. The few eggs she had left where pretty bloody
We had a sale yesterday and I got out late. Then the corps turned lose some water out of the lake. The wind was worse than ever with big white capps!:eek: I still managed a good limit with a 2 lb and one just under. The females are still deep and full of eggs. Water temps were as high as 74 yesterday.A few males are on the bank ,think they may spawn deep this time. I will try to post a picture later off the digital camera.:D
I just fished about an hour here at home before the storms hit and caught 5 big females. All were spawned out!
The lake here at my house is shallow, very clear water and about 25 acres so I figure they are done here for the year.
Crappie still out deep and full of eggs. The fish we cleaned appeared to be getting ready as the eggs were loose and can be squeezed out. I tried shallow with no luck . Catching fish out on brushpiles. If the spawn does'nt happen soon the weather will cool off later this week .:confused: