headed to POST spawn ALREADY ????

Well unfortunately YES it seems from the looks of this little girl fish :yikes
but hey there is good news ! Most seem to be still doing it and lots look fresh and full of eggs .
i was really surprised to see a spawned looking out small female yesterday out in deeper waters at the spot i visited and some of the other female fish looked to be tattered up pretty good as well .
cant say i ever seen smaller girl fish looking nearly done this early , go figure :dono
such is the world of the crappie and the unpredictable nature of them from day to day .
and right now even more so minute to minute and hour to hour .
they are runnin and gunnin hard as i type ....
word has it they all still had eggs in them when they hit the cleaning station and some more eggs than others .
this particular fish in the photo was not near the shore in 16 foot of water.
water temp was 59 at first light .
they had a liking for a bold bright colored jig for sure .
found aggressive female fish in water depths ranging from 7 to 16 foot deep .
never found a single male fish , probably up tight to the reeds and rocks i guess ?
go on the hunt i say , you might stumble up on an aggressive herd at any moment
most of our local waters have fish coming in to the shore fast and furious .
not sure why so quickly and so early but they seem in a BIG hurry to git it dun ... :dono
KABOOM is the word yawl .:highfive

Going to find out today whats going on here. Yesterday would have been perfect but got round one of the rona shot... We shall see. Full moon on the 28th.

Wow, the water here is 49*f,down from 54* only 48hrs ago, they had come in, and went back out. If your observation of a fast moving spawn happens here, I better be on it, and stick with it. Thanks for your report.

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Thanks for the report Ketchn!


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Jeez, Ketchn! Spawned out you say! At my small main stream it still doesn’t look like anything is even alive! No minnows, no nothing. Recent rains did scour the bottom though, and that is a good sign. The fishies are still hiding but good!
Bob

trying to figure out the spawn is like figuring out what women want! Path to madness for sure. but it does change as weather does and water temp.

have seen it drag on for some time and hit it perfect couple of times and at other times missed it completely or with water way up they did their dance off shore SOMEWHERE.

that doesn't even take into account the white or black spawn. have seen everyone give up on missing spawn and be out on my home lake all by ourselves and accidentally toss plug up on edge of shore and suddenly get whacked by aggressive black male and then it was on! shore was alive with blacks and got our limit in short order that evening and went back in morning and they were still there. so called the wives over and we all were pulling them in 4 rods at a time and swinging them to me and i would sort out ones we wanted, fix or replace jigs and it was all done in half hour.

best thing to do always is if your like the Outlaw and can get at em most days keep dipping and they will come in and out.

Been tough here. Falling water has most fish hold 12-15 ft. But as most springs I fished shallow water hard for several hours Sunday. Finally found a nice pod of fish staging on one Cypress tree waiting for the next rain in 3 ft
13 total on jigs using 50lb braid with 10 lb hi-vis mono leader. 14 ft Berkley rod.
Fun stuff



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If the spawn here on Joe Pool Lake has happened or is happening the guys did not get dressed up for their role. I am not seeing any in a full tuxedo at my slips. I fished my slips and the rocks from 3 pm to 10 pm last night. I caught 12 from 3 pm to 5 pm in the slips, not a tux among them. They stopped biting in the slips at 5 pm. They started bitting in the rock area behind the slips at 7 pm and stopped at 8:30 pm. I caught five during that period, 3 nice sized, 2 small. The 2 small ones had just started to show a little color and had a ragged tail. So I'm hopeful for this afternoon and tonight.

I checked the normal spawn areas on the lake Saturday and did not see any fish, in the spawn areas or the nearby drop-off areas.

Saturday the water temperature was 48. Yesterday it was 56.

Am going out to try again in a couple of hours.

They come in in waves..... You may have caught a few that were there a lot earlier than most think they go shallow....... My thinking anyway.....

That girl look like she's been whooped on purdy good:Rofl

Not doing the deal here yet. Six cleaned, but we are a little behind here on the dry side...Usually the case.

this post was to point out the unpredictable nature of the spawn and when and why and etc that occurs .
most fish locally are either starting up and or in some cases trying to race in and seal a deal first round .
many crappie fisher folks have very little understanding of how these fish reproduce .
they wave spawn and almost all the female fish will come in and lay eggs several times .
this in turn is why as a species they are so prolific .
KABOOM is still the word :highfive

Kind of like the whitetail rut. Always some early and some late. Kind of protects the species/age class that way it seems.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MCG1

Kind of like the whitetail rut. Always some early and some late. Kind of protects the species/age class that way it seems.

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with the crappie its about if one don't take the next one or possibly the one after will .
with the unpredictable water/weather conditions in the spring it gives them a better chance to have a successful hatch.
with whitetails it is similar but more of it is due to buck doe ratio and the ages of the yearling does in the herd as well .
one thing for certain with mother nature never say never ....
i got a 9 point running on our place that still has his rack on his head as i type

Might be another test run this afternoon... :fish Looks like the wind may cooperate, but they have been wrong more than right in the past!:banghead

the north wind here was past brutal yesterday
maybe 40 mph or 45 gusts with a sustained 20 to 25 mph
and it is now ccccold again ....
i will let it settle a bit before i go hammer ....
maybe tomorrow is the word :highfive

May try it again this afternoon and tonight. The wind forecast for today is around 17 NW. Would be hard to find a sheltered spot on the lake with this wind direction but the slips should be ok.