Have Crappie Spawned ?

[panfisher]

Been catching male black's and very few white females. I think black's spawn befor whites.

[frying eyes]

I've been catching crappie last couple weeks on main lake. Most of them have been male's in 12-20ft. They could be spawning deep as clear as the water is. Some places you can see 15ft down.

[powerdive]

We had 3 limits Sunday, mostly trolling near bottom at 30-34 feet. 80% were egg-laden females.

[whitebassman]

Powerdive, that's where we've been catching them also. Most of the ones we are catching are blowing their eggs as they come out of the water. You can catch males all day in 15 to 25ft.

[powerdive]

The unusual thing for us was the lack of size. Most were 10.5 to 11.5 inches, with only 6 or 7 over 12 inches and nothing over 13. Not typical for the midlake (Mutton to Mile Long).

[mjk86]

PD...were you using downriggers?

[Haulin Bass]

Crazy, but we found more Crappie "deeper" rather than shallower.

Last weekend the females we caught had about 30 to 40 percent of their eggs left!

This will be the last weekend that the crappie will be in any kind of spawning mode.

After that, it will be back to their summer patterns.

[powerdive]

PD...were you using downriggers?

Leadcore with Flicker Shads, Deep Little Rippers, and Minnow Raps.

In the past, we've used a 2 oz. inline weight on 10/2 braid with a stickbait to hit 30' at 2 mph with only 70' of line out. The suspended bite in the coves usually lasts a good month or more after the spawn, but the fish will be shallower.

[Crappie Catcher]

Caught 13 keepers lastnight 1 male and 12 females full of eggs.