crappie spawn

[frabillfisher]

What time about do crappies start there pre-spawn..or just start to plain spawn?

[andy j]

Spring time my friend, Crappie tend to seekout warmer shallower water in the spring to first feed and then later to spawn. Bullrushs, and woody cover especially, seem to attract spawners. AJ

[CrappieJohn]

There are a million influences involved in when crappies begin their pre-spawn activities and the same with the spawn itself. Water temp, available light, latitude, water color,what the winter was like, amount of ice on the water on the lake/river in question, weather patterns and trends....the year itself will become denominators for the spawn.

In Minnesota, I'd begin to look for subtle early pre-spawn activity about three weeks after the lake turns over in the spring. Rainfall amounts, daily temperature trends, even daily weather patterns will come into play. A cold spring will push the timing back. Very warm might move it up.

Here in the SE corner of the state an average time to begin seeing some of this pattern begin to unfold would be mid-April. The further north you go, the later you will see this. Differences east to west on the same latitude can be very apparent.

The most influential control on this to start is the weather. I don't ever look at what is happening right now to make decisions about when this might start to shape up. I look back into the previous fall and look at rainfall, into the winter to look at snowfall totals and how the lake entered winter ( was it real low or higher than normal). Things that took place months ago can be as detrimental as what is going on today. This is one reason logging you fishing all year is so important if you want to follow things of this nature. This is a good question, but one with no short answer. I'm sure Matt, Uj and Corey will have some input along with a host of others. Again....real good topic!