Yall shouldn't knock it till you try it....the deep spawn bite is amazing.. caught these little males 120' live scoping stake beds... im rigged up and ready to go again I
Last edited by TroyKing; 03/18/1905:51 PM.
The driving force and secret desire of every bass fisherman, is to one day be a crappie fisherman............Could it be that the good Lord just smilies and looks the other way when a fisherman tells a lie?
Yall shouldn't knock it till you try it....the deep spawn bite is amazing.. caught these little males 120' live scoping stake beds... im rigged up and ready to go again I
Crappie Guide on Houston TX area lakes. Email to schedule a trip: skscrappiecatchingadventures@gmail.com or call my message line 281-301-9316
REGARDLESS OF HOW MANLY YOU THINK YOU ARE WEARING A PFD CAN SAVE YOUR LIFE.....Onxy A/M 24 PFD's
If I get out of work at noon on Friday I will tell you. I think the late cold snap and cloudy days has pushed them back. From my experience the 3rd week of March is a little early.
Same as mine. I usually dont start hammering them shallow until April, most are usually prespawn right now. Water temps need to be steadily in the 60s before it really gets going.
Agreed. I fished the Ray Roberts marina on Saturday (my home lake). Water temp was +/- 50 degrees and fairly clear. I picked up a few isolated males, but nothing consistent. Pre-spawn crappie are usually staging under to docks by now. Either they were not there or they had lockjaw. I am of the opinion that the cool weather has everything pushed back a few weeks.
Patiently waiting
Re: WHATS GOING ON WITH THE SPAWN?
[Re: SK.]
#1309628803/18/1911:20 PM
Yall shouldn't knock it till you try it....the deep spawn bite is amazing.. caught these little males 120' live scoping stake beds... im rigged up and ready to go again I
Two fish man you are on a roll I tell ya. lol !! Nice catch though as the bite has got to get better. Just saying ..
Don't believe everything you hear and half of what you see . Living for the Thump !!
Temperature is the among the most important factor along with length of day IMO. It has been slower this year because of the cooler conditions. With that being said, there are plenty of fish spawning right now if you know where to look. As far as the immature fish on the bank, I have a hard time believing that. I have caught some big fish shallow and spawning. It's more about being there when they move in. They sure catch some monsters shallow at Grenada.
Ding, ding, ding, ding!!!!!!! Exactly!!!! A tour of the hatchery in Athens couldn't explain it any better. Fish seek the best place to lay eggs for the best survival of their offspring. If they actually deposited eggs in deep water they are more susceptible to predation and bacteria because they would take much longer to hatch. IF they even would hatch because of the lower O2 levels, lack of temperature, etc. All of which is controlled at the hatchery to optimize the hatch including Ph. I always trust info from the guides that are on the water, consistently catching fish, spawn, no spawn, cold front, etc. Guys like Jerry, Mark and some of the others are fishing nearly 7 days a week keeping in touch with the fish!!
That's funny as I havn`t seen very much guides posting any kind of daily reports on here lately on how they are catching or what they are seeing . Just saying
Don't believe everything you hear and half of what you see . Living for the Thump !!
Temperature is the among the most important factor along with length of day IMO. It has been slower this year because of the cooler conditions. With that being said, there are plenty of fish spawning right now if you know where to look. As far as the immature fish on the bank, I have a hard time believing that. I have caught some big fish shallow and spawning. It's more about being there when they move in. They sure catch some monsters shallow at Grenada.
Ding, ding, ding, ding!!!!!!! Exactly!!!! A tour of the hatchery in Athens couldn't explain it any better. Fish seek the best place to lay eggs for the best survival of their offspring. If they actually deposited eggs in deep water they are more susceptible to predation and bacteria because they would take much longer to hatch. IF they even would hatch because of the lower O2 levels, lack of temperature, etc. All of which is controlled at the hatchery to optimize the hatch including Ph. I always trust info from the guides that are on the water, consistently catching fish, spawn, no spawn, cold front, etc. Guys like Jerry, Mark and some of the others are fishing nearly 7 days a week keeping in touch with the fish!!
"
thats funny.. raising fish in a building full of tanks in a controlled enviorment, and what fish do in the wild cannot be compared equally. I would love to hear ANY of the guides you mentioned say they can catch crappie shallow thru out the spawn shallow on a consistant basis.. everyday, in shallow water. bet they wont.. ha . Spawn is feast or famine, and any guide knows that, which to my knowledge you have never done any guiding ... as I have. anyone who can think logically should realize that with 10s of thousands of crappie on our lakes, if most of them spawned shallow, and at a certain temp, there should be a period where there would be so many crappie in a particular"warm" area, and shallow that they would be almost stacked on top of each other, but that is never the case.. Sometimes I think there are people who already know what ive posted, and they do not like this information getting posted for whatever reason. The best ive done for mature spawning fish on belton has been 15 to 18 feet... granger, 12 feet over 15 foot ditch, trading house, brushpiles in 10 feet, waco, brush piles in 8 to 12 feet.. yes I can find small males in the rivers and creeks near the banks, but not the big mature spawning groups.
good stuff
Don't believe everything you hear and half of what you see . Living for the Thump !!
I hope no one that fishes palestine reads this and tries to apply it. There may be some fish deeper than 10-12' but it pales in comparison to the fish that are relatively shallow. Yes the majority aren't in 1-2' all day everyday but they are really close and ready to go when the conditions are right. Our big females are stacked 6-8' or less and constantly moving. When it got really cold last week they pushed out to 10' but were right back shallower again after 3 warm afternoons. You may catch a fish here and there out deeper but as stated before think there is a higher likelihood they are staging or just finished.
Part of this post kind of reminds of a good one a few years ago where someone used aquarium observation and applied it to crappie behavior in the wild. It still makes me laugh every time I clean a crappie that's gut is stuffed full of bait fish...
Originally Posted by Beltonbanger
Originally Posted by leanin post
It has nothing to do with whether they feed more in winter or spring or summer or fall. Everything has to do with the ease of obtaining a meal. I often hear guys say.. THE CRAPPIE WERE STUFFED WITH SHAD.. Really,, so you cut them open an 10, shad fell out of thier stomach, 7, 5 , 2 ?? MALARKY,, Ive never caught a crappie with more than one shad or minnow in its belly, and some partially digested goop in the intesines. The fact is, crappie will eat one or 2 minnow or shad every couple days. I know this beecause I had one in a tank for close to a year, and observed how often it fed. I actually counted the minnows daily.
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Wow......good info! Especially for a fish in a 12" to 15" tank!
I put 25 in the cooler Thursday night and Friday night behind my lot on a lake east of here that ends with the letter K. 4-6 ft of water and I was 2-3 ft deep with my minners. I think these fish were staging out a little deeper but just got bored and cruised up to look for a snack. Lots of time between bites but when it happened they nocked the snot out of it.
On a side....bass fisherman were practicing for the Bass champs tourney and I lost a 7 pounder that hit my minner while they drooled and gushed. Saturday, during tournament lots of boat traffic....crappie completely shut down.
They are in two foot or less at Arrowhead Above pic was yesterday These were today Notice the color of the water. Fish get really shallow in that muddy water.
i lived in Florida for many years before moving to Tx.down there its just the opposite. the water only has to drop to 68/72 degree for the bass to start spawn.here it needs to warm up to 68/72 for them to head for the spawn. and some wont spawn at all.there eggs will dry up inside them! thats not to say they won't spawn in cooler or hotter water,its just what they prefer for egg survival rate.
crappie and bass are 2 different creature,s I used to sight fish for bass alot in the 80s and 90s.. and they are frequently caught close to the banks as well in central texas, but you will never sight fish for crappie, they are RARELY seen, because they are more sensitive to light penetration than temp in my opinion. they are more like perch , and prefer shade and less light in thier eyes. Why perch are called sunfish is odd because they prefer shade, they hang under docks, tree shade, bridge shade, ect. also Crappie are one of the LEAST studied fish in existence. a few studies were done that found that thier eyesight actually improves in cold water.
I would have to disagree with the statement "You will never sight fish for crappie". Any flat object at the marina that is 2-4' under the surface in whatever depth of water around the marina such as plastic floatation, syrofoam floatation, plywood, steel, whatever it may be can have spawning crappie on it. You can see them and you can catch them. You have to be fast, they will suck a jig in and spit it back faster than your brain can tell your arm to jerk. If a jig wont entice them to bite then you can put on a tiny live perch and snatch them off there like crazy. The males will hang around for a long time and the females will come around and lay eggs. A lot of times you can catch a lot of fish deeper UNDER these types of structure. I guess they are just staging for their turn at the spawning area. I guess this is just like an artificial shallow spawning area. I have seen it for several years with my own eyes.
I have sight fished for spawning crappie in march on the south end of toledo bend...somtimes the water is very clear down there.... what i have never seen tho is crappie making, or on beds....it looks to me like they just get in the thickest stuff they can find and spawn.
The driving force and secret desire of every bass fisherman, is to one day be a crappie fisherman............Could it be that the good Lord just smilies and looks the other way when a fisherman tells a lie?
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good stuff
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