Still in pre-spawn??

Here's the story: Went to Lake Austin yesterday for the first time in a few months. I was fully predicting the crappie spawn to be winding down or possibly in post-spawn conditions. I launched upriver from Quinlan park ramp expecting higher water temps. Water temp only 61 degrees and lots of debris and floaters when launching at 0900(Found the 65 degree water down river about 12 miles). My only guess is that they are releasing water from Lake Travis.

I pulled up to spot number 1 which has a man made rocky shoreline with a rapid drop off and timber nearby. I worked that shoreline up and down fishing in 2 foot of water, 5 foot of water, 8 foot and so on out to 19 feet and not a bite. Fished some main river docks with no success. Went to the canals and fished shallow bulkheads and docks with no luck. Fished a few creeks off the main river channel and nothing. After 3 hours of fishing shallow water up to 9 feet deep I decided to hit up the main river channel before heading in.

Pulled up to a known summer spot for me and marked a few fish over structure in 26 foot of water. Dropped a jig about 15 foot down and Bam! Caught 8 suspended crappie and 1 bass on this spot. I was thinking all the way home the spawn must be done on Lake Austin and they have already migrated back to the main lake. But, when I cleaned the fish the females still had eggs.

So my conclusion from this trip is that the spawn has not officially started yet on Lake Austin.

The spawn is far from over here on Lake Belton. All the females caught on brush piles are full of eggs. As usual....about the time we think "this is it" a front comes in and halts the march!!!!

This is the perfect description of our spring crappie fishing. Its just like trying to catch the "Rut" in West Texas, on-off-cold-hot-off-on-hot-cold. Keeps us on our toes.

Good job moving around until you located and caught some fish. I don't know much about crappie fishing but one thing I have learned is "if you aren't catching them try something different" Depth, presentation, location, color, line weight, on and on. Sooner or later you MIGHT find them biting.

consider this conclusion.., the water temp doesnt matter because if it did they would have been in that 65 degree water you found,.,If temp is king they should be there?? should be able to find plenty?
also they are likely spawning where your catching them. yes in that 15 ft water,, they seem to be spawning deep in alot of places this year.
If you change your mindset up a bit and start deep, then work shallow, you will eliminate countless hours of fishing where the fish arent.. just my opinion after years of looking in the wrong areas this time of year.
Soon it will all be over, and many will think to themselves,, hmmm I guess I just did not find the right bankline, or my timing was off, they were moving in and out, ect, but the consideration that they spawned deeper just never gets considered.
This myth is so engrained in our minds by years and years of countless " experts". I can recall watching fishing country with charlies Pack, a great fisherman, and he was in a creek, and his buddy was asking him if the fish should be there,, he said yes, the temp is just abt right, yet the fish werent there. I guess mR,Pack never quite figured it out. When they are not very shallow we tend to find every reason we can why they are not there YET. The fact is, they may not go shallow at all. Its natures way to mix things up. If the fish ALL went shallow, at a particular temp, (which is oddly the current popular belief amongst most}, they would be decimated. Take lake waco for example, that lake has more crappie in it that I could even count. If the majority went shallow to spawn, they would be stacked along the banks. and that isnt ever the case. yes some are caught shallow, but most spawn 10 feet and deeper.
My theory as why mostly the small immature males tend to go shallow. I think the older more mature fish instinctively know the shallows are more hazzard due to birds and larger gamefish getting them. also sort of a pecking order. the older mature males pair with the older mature spawning females.

Right AQUA11, not all does come into heat the same week and not all fish eggs mature the same week. I've caught crappie spawning at various depths from late Feb to first week of June on the same lake in the same year.

Several yrs ago, two friends fishing Belton last week of May and couldn't find any fish on their favorite brush piles. Decided to go up the creek to look and put 43 crappie in the boat in 2 hrs fishing 2-3 ft deep.

leaning post, I wonder if there�s any information out there concerning water temp and the eggs actually hatching? Surely Mother Nature wouldn�t let crappie spawn where the eggs couldn�t hatch. I know we always talk about surface temp when we talk water temp but it is cold [censored] down deep I would imagine. I know in the middle of summer if you swim down as far as you can the water gets REALLY cold. Just thinking. Of course we know that a lot of fish up north spawn in some dang cold streams and rivers.