I'm not really a crappie guy but my parents love to crappie fish so I've always gone with them and now I'm starting to really get into this thing. I've always been more of a largemouth guy. But I took my mom out this past Tuesday, 3/15/2016, and we really caught them on Lake Conroe. We landed right at 60 with 35-40 being keepers. But when I was cleaning them I noticed that of those 35-40 only 2 had eggs.

Does this mean that they are really close to being done with the spawn or what? Thanks.

If they were in shallow water they were probably males. Especially if they were darker than normal and in small groups .


Females usually stage in 6'-8' of water and move in when their eggs are ready to disperse.

Yes Sir they were shallow. Are crappie similar to bass in the fact that the males come in first and then the females for the most part or? Just hoping that they are still going to be biting for a little longer it was a really fun day.

Yep you caught mostly males who are getting the nest ready for the femalss. Fish that same area in a week and you will be into the big females. The spawn has just started.

Reggie

The males will have two white sperm sacks and have their war paint on. It is possible they may be close to finished on Conroe. Talked to a man that says they are mostly done on Lake Houston...

The spawn is something that few here on forum understand, less than maybe one percent of the crappie spawn at a time. And like any egg you want to hatch you have to have the right temp for what ever time period. Since the crappie is doing it in the wild they wait until the water temp. is on the high side for them. This is sort of how it works, the male and female comes in to the shallow water at the same time and do their thing. here is the way it works : when the water is right the male will pick out a female and he goes in to built a nest. when ready he goes back out and get the female and she lays the eggs in the nest. The male stays on the eggs till they hatch and he looks out for the little ones for about 5 days. At that time they make a run for the grass line are what ever the male has picked out for them. May sound easy but they are both in very bad shape after the spawn. The female will feed heavy for about a week to be ready. This is the best time of year to get a three pound fish, as a 2.4-2.5 female full of eggs and shad can go 3. Any time you are fishing shallow and getting males if they show they have been building a nest or fighting move on because if you catch the male a bigger fish will eat the small ones. The spawn is best after they have been after it a while and you have females that is post, pre, and spawning at the same time in the same water. On Texas lakes in the north it ends about May 1 or so, and takes from 6-8 weeks to cover the lake most years. Just how fast the water gets right.

Larry, I was looking for any signs of the spawn on the fish we caught, bloody tail or scares on the fish, but did not see any. The one female that had the eggs was not skinny but not fat and her egg sacks were pretty small compared to some I have seen in the past. I don't know but I hope they are still spawning they sure are fun to catch and Great eaten too.

Were you catching them shallow mid lake or more north were it tends to be more shallow. Just curious if they move up the creeks down south as well or better than up north.

We were down south in the Adkins Creek area if your familiar with Conroe at all.