Crappie Spawn

[delmuts]

Matt or any of you folks!

i was at a little lake today where the males were shallow(many times right next to the bank!)the males are black, but no females. my question is? are they just ready to spawn ( with the full moon) or have they finished, and the females have moved back out, or haven't the females moved in yet? was fishing from shore, so no water temps! del

[fisherman-andy]

Here's my take. Since of that late ice out I believe especially in most smaller lakes that most Crappies have spawned already. Unless the conditions are exactly right again for them to spawn another.

In the metro area the initial warm up after ice out was like 3 weeks ago. I found out this past week that most holding spots for spawning Crappies have already finished and the pannies have moved in to spawn. However this may not hold true depending on the area your in. So maybe ate ice produced a short spawn period.

[Matt Johnson]

It's a close call really. Water temps will help with the answer but it sounds like you might have a batch that have already spawned, but more than likely you have fish preparing for a spawn as well...

[Doonbuggy]

Was on Tonka last night and we were in 55* water. The bite was much tougher than a few days ago, but I noticed that some of the fish were looking darker. Gettin' close?

These fish were in 5-9' of water, off of shore a bit, and hanging in weeds.

I'm wondering if the bite was tougher because the air temp (it was windy last night) and water temp were about the same.

I had a much better bite late Saturday morning. At that time the air/wind temp was warmer than the water temp. Wondering if that is a pattern worth considering.

DB

[2dalake]

I've always looked for 60 degree water. I don't get real excited about them until we're seeing upper 50s.

[Kyle Sandberg]

They were pushing right up to the spawn this past weekend. I doubt it happend with the high winds and cooler temps. Wednesday there were no black males caught, friday caught a few black males with milk still in them yet. This steady weater we're experiecing right know should be perfect for them to spawn.

[ozzie]

I have been on a lake for the last 3-4 weeks and the crappies as of late last week must have been fri-sun that the males started to turn black...prior to Sun we had not caught a crappie that had turned black.........last night all I could catch were males

[DHanson]

I hammered the crappies yesterday and I would say 80% of the fish I caught were females. The females were all pre-spawn and with huge bellies full of eggs. I kept a limit of males because there was no way I could keep a female with a belly full of eggs. Just knowing they would be spawning shortly, I could not handle knowing that those eggs would go to waste. I hope others are trying to keep the males for a meal rather than keeping the females full of eggs.

[2dalake]

How far north were you?

[DHanson]

St. Cloud area. Not very far north at all.

[2dalake]

OK thanks, I'm waiting for my favorite lake a little farther north to warm up, but the ice didn't go out until after Mother's Day on this lake, so everything is screwed up.

[Matt Johnson]

A lot of dark fish in the Chisago area right now... and females still had a lot of their eggs...

[cRaPpiEMaN8265]

Up near the Siren WI area fish are staged to come in with water temps right around 60. I think next weekend will be prime for the area if we can get out of the 50's Hopefully we can get a few 70 degree sunny days to bring the fish in!

Good Luck!

[Roosterslayer05]

I was up north last wensday the 28th and caught a female in a traditional ice out spot then got a real dark male in some reeds, more of a spawning area. Went back out there this monday with a graph that shows temp and the water was around 61-62 degrees. It was a rainy overcast day monday and I dident get a crappie. Do you think these fish have already spawned? At what water temp do crappies usually begin to spawn?

[AugieAngler1010]

I have noticed the spawn is either underway or done for the metro lakes I've fished. All of the females I caught yesterday on Green Lake were spawned out. Late last week on a western Wisconsin lake it was about 25% spawned versus 75% still with eggs.

[schr0563]

I was on a large lake up near Alexandria on Saturday. Water was 59-60 degrees. Male crappies were starting to move in (19 of our 20 fish were males). A few had staked out nesting spots, more of them were still roaming looking for areas to set up shop. We did come accross one large school in 5-6 fow that had 50 plus fish in it. These appeared to be big females staging to move in for the spawn as they weren't located on any one piece of structure and just cruised around in a large area. Some of these fish appeared to be 15 inches plus. Not wanting to stress the females we went back in shallower and caught males. I would expect the majority of the spawn on this lake to occur over the next week, and the males should hang out for a while after that guarding the nests.

[ironman]

Just fished a lake yeserday in Pine Co. and the crappies and big gills were still out deeper suspended over open water. The gills seemed to be more concentrated next to the drop and weedline but the crappies were everywhere. A few days ago fish were in the same spot only we caught them right off the bottom, yesterday they were a couple feet below the surface. No black males yet and all the females looked like they were going to burst. I have to imagine just a couple if not one day of nice warm sunny weather will have these fish spawning like crazy. Just in time for me to go back to work. Dang!!