Crappies with spawn in 'em still!

[Cooter]

Fished a gravel pit near Eau Claire last Thurs. evening. Kept a half dozen crappies for dinner and about keeled over when I found eggs in the first one I cut open. All of them had spawn in them yet - unreal. Am gonna have to believe they won't spawn this year?

[2dalake]

What was the water temp where you caught them?

[fish-too-little]

Was up on Big Pine last week and people were saying the same thing about the sunnies there. Didn't here anything about the crappies.

[Bobb-o]

same thing happened at my cabin, all the crappies still had spawn in them, but on the plus side i have been catching a but load of 4-5 inchers along with the 9-12s so i think a new year class will be growing up soon

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a Leap year huh? sweet, an extra day of fishing!

[CrappieJohn]

Think back to when these fish were just starting to spawn and how we got into that cold, really wet stretch of weather. The water temperature crashed and most likely it was a deep enough change to cause the crappies to hold their spawn. Problem is that the weather and cold did not relent and it got too late for them to get rid off the eggs.

In most waters, this will not hinder crappie production much. Removing a year-class of fish can be a good way to boost over-all crappie size for several years to come.

The same as what you are describing happened in the SE corner of Mn as well on some waters. I'm not sure how that affected the Mississippi River backwaters fishing. I think this situation is far more wide-spread than first thought. This is only the second time I have seen this occur.

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Plastics...making better fishermen without bait! Good Fishing Guys! CrappieTom

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[Cooter]

2dalake - I was shore fishing so am not sure what the water temp was. I do know I had been out in May crappie fishing one day and the water temp. was 73 - a month later in June the same area had a water temp of 69. Lots of cold weather when they should have been spawning as crappietom mentioned.

[2dalake]

Good ol' CT, the crappie encyclopedia!