crappies

[Nutty Fisherman]

Just wondering? My brother in law asked if the male or the female stays on the nest? I told him I think the male does, After I got to thinking I was not sure, but I think I was right.

[palisade1kid]

The males stay on the nest ...

[Nutty Fisherman]

Thanks thats what I thought.

[half-dutch]

The same for bluegills. In both cases the parental care involves cleaning and aerating the eggs and only a couple of days of herding the fry or only until they are about mobile enough to disperse.

Then the fry are on their own, and the sunfish may even spawn again, if the weather has been warm and stable enough, something crappies almost never do.

[south_metro_fish]

So well catching the bluegills with the nice orange belly's this last weekend, I realized the ones with the really orange belly were the males and the ones with a faded orange belly were females. I could tell after cleaning the males and seeing the females belly all huge, witch I would through back. But my question is how do you tell if a crappie is a male or female? Also how do you tell with other sunfish and perch?

[budboy]

The males are real black right now.

[Scott M]

males guard nests in fathead minnows, sticklebacks, bass, bluegill, crappie, and catfish.

[south_metro_fish]

Here is another question for the panfish fishermen. If you know a crappie or sunny has eggs and it is a decent fish do you through it back or do you keep if? I have been putting the ones with eggs back. So what do you guys do?

[ozzie]

me personally......I have been putting them back.......any fish that I have kept or the boat I am in have kept try to make sure fish with eggs get returned as with anything over 12.5" for crappies

[Arctic Cat Pete]

I fish in central wi and was very suprized today to find out

the crappies have not spawned yet! water temp was about 65f.

when do they spawn?

[fisherdog19]

Should drop their eggs now, they do in the mid 60's.

[Arctic Cat Pete]

Thanks,I've had a tough time catching them this year until today.I figured they must be done spawning so i kept 1/2 dozen today but some had eggs.

[ozzie]

they will spawn in the mid 60's but if the weather isn't right sometimes they won't drop their eggs and instead absorb them....the way the weather has been this spring I think we might see some of this

[fisherdog19]

I think we'll see alot of it like we did two years ago.

[Scott M]

The spawn is very messed up with that run of cold weather the last 2-3 weeks...I caught some crappies last week that hadn't spawned, heck I got some bass that hadn't spawned yet

[Arctic Cat Pete]

I kept 4 today and all had eggs in them.

water temp at 73f.

Must mean they are not gonna spawn this year

[river-rat4]

I kept 4 today and all had eggs in them.

water temp at 73f.

Must mean they are not gonna spawn this year

You might be using the temp on your sonar. That would be the surface temperature, deeper at 6-8 feet would be more accurate.

I am assuming.

river-rat4

[Foreverfish1]

I've caught a few lately that still had eggs in them. I think that just these fish didn't spawn, but since the whole crappie population doesn't all spawn at the same time I am sure there were a few if not lots of crappies that did spawn this year. It was a very inconsistant spring in terms of temps (Cold May and first 2/3s of June then HOT last 1/3rd of June)from how I remember it.

Just my 2 cents.

[Arctic Cat Pete]

You assumed right river rat,But i am fishing a small river.

Doesn't the temp in a river stay pretty close top to bottom?