I've noticed that our male crappie are already darkening up with there spawning colors. This week it seemed like we caught more everyday that were dark. Today we cleaned lots of dark males. Any one else seeing this yet?

Didn't notice any "dark" fish weighed in at LOP yesterday.

Last week i cleaned two females with egg sacks!!!

Seems all the females I have cleaned now have egg sacks. I noticed small traces of eggs in them in late october. Have caught very few males but I'm fishing in 20ft of water. I have caught a few males lately and all were getting pretty dark for this time of year.

You probably wouldnt have noticed them at Pines if you caught them in deep water. These fish are shallower that were catching. It seems that when the males start running in the shallows for the prespawn they will start darkening up as there hormones change. As for eggs, the females started developing eggs back in september and there sacks are very full now.

It may have been september as that was what I initially guessed. Hard to remember time when you fish almost everyday. The eggs I seen Friday in some of the already had the red blood lines in them. You can tell when you catch em that they are full of eggs.

I noticed that on one of the fish I caught yesterday too.

Unless we get some very cold weather for several days, the water temps may not fall below 50 the rest of the winter. I notice temps rocking between 51.5 to 55.4 on three different lakes I've been on. This may be an unusual year for the spawn. Water temps are close but may rock back and forth and really give the fish a lot of false starts. May be hard to get on fish shallow as they move back and forth. The crappie are definitely not deep right now and are roaming around in 10-20ft of water. Shad seem to have scattered some also and are all over the place, deep and shallow.

its gonna be an early spawn this year, the wrens are already building nests, the cedar trees are giving off thier pollen and several other sure signs. If we dont get rain and the water is real clear, they will spawn deeper, just like last year.
The winter bite has been tough on alot of lakes because the areas the shad can survive is limited, and the crappie are stacked up right along with the shad in those limited areas, and are feeding whenever they want. I expect to catch some whopper crappie this coming spring and summer. they got a free pass to spawn last year with the constant strong winds, and this winters conditions make it tough to catch them feeding because of the concentrations of baitfish. all we need is more water. you will start catching largemouth bass shallow first, then the crappie will move in to spawn after them. 65 to 70 degree water temps are what ive seen them spawn in here in the centex.

I swear I'm not trying to start something here & please correct me if I'm wrong but I have always been told that Crappie start spawning before Bass. Maybe I have it backwards?

Seen three males on Saturday that had a lot of color!

that may be true where your at, but here, every year I always catch bass on the beds before the crappie show up. . what have you yourself noticed? aside from what you have been told. If you learn to see things for yourself, and dont close your mind, you will see and learn things that are quite the contrary to what people have been repeating over the years. abt 70 percent of what people believe to be true, is what theve heard, not what they have observed themselves.

It has always seemed like the Crappie move in first to me. But I don't get to fish as much as some do, so it could be that I'm brainwashed to believe what I have always read.

The ones I caught this weekend shallow were not dark at all, really light in color.

i have caught a few in the creek systems around the joe pool area that are dark allready.