Report and ? on crappies.

[bmc]

I had the family out on Tuesday night (17th) doing some crappie fishing north of Grand Rapids. We ended up keeping 10 crappies in the 9-12" range. We probably caught another 30-40 that we let go. At the end of the night, I was catching them every cast on a 1/32 chartruse chenille/marabou jig, no bait. When cleaning the fish, a couple still had spawn in them. If they didn't spawn this spring, how will that affect this lake in the next year or two? I realize that a year class of fish will be missing, but that may be good as there are alot of 7-8" crappies in there right now, which should mean more food for them. Right? Does anyone ever have any luck catching crappies on leeches?

Brian

[taxmancommeth]

"...affect this lake in the next year or two?"

My guess is that the 7-8" class would be bigger in coming years due to the food source, might actually be tough fishing because of the over abundance of food source. Hopefully people up there will C&R some of them due to this years class being not there.

"Crappies on leeches?"

Caught a few this spring fishing in deeper water fishing for those 'eyes.

We were drifiting in 20+ feet of water and saw bigger fish at 18' & smaller at 12'... We were drifting walleye snells and hooked into a few 12" crappies. Caught only two walleyes around the 12" range in that spot.

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GET-ER-DONE

[Matt Johnson]

Quite a few fish still spawned this year, but like you said, there are still some that have spawn in them right now. Weird how things have been working out this year, a change in fishing patterns thats for sure. With this cold weather and change in water temps we should see a turn-over any day now

Good Fishin,
Matt Johnson

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Matt Johnson Outdoors
[email protected]
Metro Area Ice Fishing and more...

Iceleaders
Catch-N Tackle and Bio-Bait
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[Matt Johnson]

Aww, sorry...leeches...

I'll hook into crappies every now and then trolling leeches on float jigs or spinners. Also catch a few when jigging leeches too, but generally don't target crappies with leeches. But, I'm sure a hungry crappie will snatch up a leech just like they would a minnow or worm...

Good Fishin,
Matt Johnson

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Matt Johnson Outdoors
[email protected]
Metro Area Ice Fishing and more...

Iceleaders
Catch-N Tackle and Bio-Bait
MarCum
Stone Legacy
JR's Tackle
Fish Fever

[united jigsticker]

How much spawn did they have in them...That's the question. They may have spawned; Residual eggs left over is not always an indication of a missed regeneration.

On lakes with healthy populations, a missed spawn isn't going to harm the lake any. It will only assist in making it a more quality fishery in future years with respect to size.

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Good fishing,
UJ
[email protected]