Which is more important in deciding when the gills/crackers spawn, water temperatures or moon phases?
Or is it something else entirely, like a biological clock?? If it's water temperatures, what degrees would you say is best?
Printable View
Which is more important in deciding when the gills/crackers spawn, water temperatures or moon phases?
Or is it something else entirely, like a biological clock?? If it's water temperatures, what degrees would you say is best?
I've seen in the past couple weeks the male redear avoid the shallows any lower than 70°...... I've seen the water temp up to 72° but still haven't caught a female yet....
Most of the males are fairly colored up so it won't be long....
I know there moon phase plays a roll but I don't depend on it to go fishn, I go when I can.....
I don't know for sure but I often wonder why one day is the day and the next is not
there are sure enough a million reasons according to the in the know crowd ,but like what I see with crappie I think there is some sort of magic and it varies from water body to water body
and from what I can tell it isn't always the same set of ingredients
wow was that helpful or what :Rofl
I think it is mainly related to consistent water temperatures but moon phase is a secondary trigger for the spawn.
Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app
I will hold as well on no fluctuation on water temps and raise you a steady water level :Rofl
Neither seems to be a accurate as once believed . jmo :twocents
This ^^^^Quote:
Originally Posted by D10
For years I preached the full moon deal on spawning bluegill. Then I started looking at my records. The spawn and full moon did not add up. I quit keeping records a while back but I no longer pay any attention the the full moon. I also did a lot of research on the subject....no scientific evidence at all that the full moon affects the bluegill spawn. I do what SK suggested...I just go anytime I can. Looking back at records I do keep now...the past 2 years of youtube videos.....I found many bedding fish well before...well after, and some on or around the full moon.
Regards
If you fish every day, does it matter? :biggrin
Good info on the spawn (temps and some moon phase) but for bass at link below. May have some applicability to gills.
YouTube
Somewhat related to this topic is a study we did about a decade ago. We used to fertilize some of our lakes to boost productivity and anglers would complain and say that the fish wouldn’t bite after we fertilized for a little while. So I designed a single line sampling (fishing) experiment where we fished for bluegill a month before and a month after we fertilized. We recorded a bunch of environmental variables like water temp, pH, conductivity and also other variables like # of days after fertilizing, barometric pressure and lunar phase and also kept up with the number of bluegill we caught. We sampled on random dates and locations on this lake with only red wrigglers. Fishing like this actually becomes work when it is structure like this and you don’t have the freedom to fish known beds. But I shouldn’t complain too much! Anyway, what variables do you think affected our catch rates the most? Catch rates weren’t affected by most of the variables, including fertilizing. Water temperature had the greatest impact on bluegill catch rate and lunar phase was a distant second. At the time, we didn’t look at it this way but if I went back and looked when catch rates were the highest, it was probably centered around the peak of the spawn during our sample period.
Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app
What is the prime water temperature for the blue gill spawn?
Peak bluegill spawn in Arkansas is around 75, but they will spawn when the water temp between 65 to 85. Spawning temperature ranges also vary some with latitude. In the more northern latitudes where water temperature doesn’t get as warm as in the south, the range will shift some.Quote:
Originally Posted by Skippa Chippa
Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app