Spring crappie habits

[Dano2]

wasout at one of my favorite blue gill lakes the other night.
went to my favorite hotspot, its a couple bunches of reeds around the middle of the lake.
the reeeds were bairley above wateer so far, but I tryed a couple casts by them anyway.
its about 5-6 feet deep.
No gills so I moved along.
Couple hours later, I reken it was about 7:00 P.M. I decided to give it another shot, but this time from a good distance i used the trlling moter and moved in quietly.
my first cast by the edge of the reeds, i nailed a 12" crappie, then another nice one, then another, then someone saw me catching fish and came flying in there and it shut em right off. trolled around abit and managed to catch 5 more.
O.K. enough of the story, my question is, this lake has a couple small bays, why would the crappies be hanging out towards the middle, escpecially when the reeds arn't even much cover yet?
Do they move around during spawning much?
Is there much of a chance if they were there 2 days ago, if they will be there again?
Is there a chance they actually chose this area to spwn being there is some what of cover, the lake isn't very big, and that area wasn't very deep?
thanks

OH, P.S. During this time of the year, is the bite generally best towards evening, or can it be hot in the morning too?

[This message has been edited by Dano2 (edited 05-22-2003).]

[Dano2]

they were there again tonight, so i guess that answers one of my questions.

[CrappieJohn]

Dano....Crappies will use main lake reed beds and other weed habitats for spawning if the core needs are being met there. Some lakes have unreal crappie populations, but you cannot ever find a spawning crappie on the shorelines. If that is the case in this lake, it simply tells you that the shorelines are not meeting the demands for spawning , whereas the shallow weeds are. Any time you are fishing away from the shore in open water, you will do better to stay back some distance and cast to the weeds using your electric for positioning your boat. For some reason mid-lake fish are always more sensitive to outboard noise. Another trick to help keep the other pests away is to keep your hemostats handy and when you bring a fish up to the boat unhook it in the water and release it. If you should decide you are going to keep it for the table, hand land it and keep it low in the boat. Sringers, fish baskets and nets draw attention to you. Good fishing...Crapster

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