Is the spawn

a function of water temperature or day length? Many biological triggers are more a function of day length or night length than temperature but I have seen nothing about fish spawns.

Both

Both

Fast Foward too the 6:00 mark, unless you wanna watch the whole video. Just Hardcore crappie facts!

Yep !

function of fish clocks,....water temps and day length are only conveniences.

Both but water temp is the most important factor I use to pattern any fish spawning.

Agreed on both, but Water Temp is huge. Crappie will start moving into staging when the water is in the mid 50's and will start a spawn about 62 degrees. The spawn obviously does not all happen at once. This will take a couple of months as they take their turns based on mother nature. If you are wanting to catch big crappie, search close to the shallows but stay in 10-12 FOW on structure. This cold snap is going to put us back a few weeks, especially with rain and snow melting as the rivers will be full of cold water. Last week I was catching them in 10-12 FOW on trees, but I fear soon that will change. The surface temp on Palestine in the North Lake was 57 but I know that is going to change with a 6 degree low. I use4d to bank fish for crappie, but most of what you catch is only males which are smaller. The female will come up and spawn (lay her eggs) and is only there for about 2 hours according to biologist. Then she returns to the 10-12 FOW to feed. I usually do not keep any at this time of year to allow for maximum spawn but I sure have fun catching them. Check out this video I made on prespawn. This was early March of last year (2020).

In DFW they don't spawn till April according to some.

when the redbuds and dogwood bloom in oklahoma

I know in our little private lake in Bluff Dale, both the crappie and the bass spawn are earlier than other bodies of water near by. I think a lot of it there has to do with the massive amount of aquatic vegetation and the extremely clear water too.

I didn't see them spittng out eggs but I'll say it's a good idea to start checking your spawning areas as soon as the day light hours start to grow.....
With increasing daylight hours comes increasing water temps...... And I've seen good pockets of fish up shallow in as cold as low 40° surface water temps......
You can follow the crowd or you can be a leader and fill your live wells.....
Go fishn and go fishn often and give it a check..... You'll be surprised.....
It also depends on your lake water depth and also clarity.......

Did y'all see how the biologist got chocked up about the black crappie spawning times.....LOL.....I always watch Crappie Connection and seen this one when it was released, they have some good info...... Y'all will be really surprised on the use of a 27' crappie rod in one of there recent releases by a well known big time tourney fisherman.....27' yes a 27' rod.......LOL
I've been using long rods way before it was cool to do so but 27' even took me by surprise.......
Be humble and be humble often.....

I didn’t watch fhe 27’ rods segment but I can’t imagine holding it still! I picked up a 20’ at the crappie expo in 2019 and I bet I had to hold it still in the rack for 5 minutes just to put it down!!

Very interesting information on here. i've been listening to a number of podcasts lately. I've heard 2 or 3 biologists that have said that the length of day is the most important factor with water temp a distant second. I think that just goes to show that noone, biologists included, has a really good understanding of what really triggers the spawn.

I can guarantee one thing, a week of temps well below freezing and 4-6” of snow certainly isn’t what triggers it.

And that is a fact.....LOL

Always an interesting topic. Use the search engine for past threads to get a WHOLE lot of opinions.

According to those who say temp makes no difference, there should be crappie in 2 FOW end of this month spawning. If anyone catches crappie actually spawning this month, please provide details how shallow and water temp. Also what lake. There will most likely be fish up shallow in Falcon, Choke Canyon, Lake Mathis this month and power plant lakes. But in central or north TX??????

Problem with these conversations is the definition of spawning. Finding fish shallow does not automatically equate to spawning. If the females have eggs oozing out, then they are spawning. If no eggs are coming out, then fish may be looking for spawning areas, but not in the process.

One thing for sure; Feb is a month when crappie do a lot of moving looking for the spot. Here one day and nada tmrw.

Before this deep drop in temps I was fishn a Houston area lake cork and jig 2.5' in 3fow near tree trunks, was bank fishn as the wind was way too high to put the boat on the water..... Only caught males that were colored up to beat the band..... Don't know a definite on water temp but it was cold and the fish were cold..... Can't say they were spawning but they were in the spawning grounds and that's all I needed to know as it's happened for several years.......
There are fish to be caught in shallow water well before the myth of the best "crappie season" dealing with a certain water temp...... Enjoy The Hunt Or Stay Home.......

I hear you SK. Glad you found them there; it's always a blast catching them shallow. Let us know if they are there the next few days. Probably a lot of difference in water temps in say Lake Houston compared to Ray Roberts.
Chris mentioned above that he found some 57 degree water in the north part of Palestine. My guess is it ain't 57 there in the morning. In fact, might be some skim ice in the same area. But hey, fish might be there looking for that sweet spot. You never know till you go

water temp, moon phase and photoperiodism

This year it might be another 6-8 weeks or so before we see any real push shallow, I’m sure a lot of the coves on area lakes are frozen and I don’t see any significant heat in the forecast right now. The water has to get up in to the 60s and stay there for them to be spawning, at least in my experience. It takes a while for water to warm up and right now I bet the surface temp on a lot of our area lakes is in the low 40s or even 30s.

Mid March (3-4 weeks), I will be on shallow spawning fish in DFW. Happens every year, just have to know where to look. It only takes a couple nights in the 50s to make it happen.

They may be hard to come by spawning at the end of this month with an arctic outbreak but in years past, they do. 1st-2nd week of March like clockwork they move up in certain areas in DFW. I am going to have to make a post when I find them. Just don't understand saying it's 6-8 weeks away. That's when it is easy, they are spawning before that if you know where to look.

if the dogwoods are blooming...

Happened to look in the bass section this morning. If you're interested, take a look at some of the topics with pics of Williams Creek on Fork frozen over, and Lake Bridgeport, and a couple more lakes. Also pic of the Guadalupe River frozen over. The water might be a tad cold right now. Probably a big shad die off in most lakes.

I hope we don’t have a huge Shad die off. Stillhouse Hollow Lake water temps this morning was 49 degrees. I believe that’s right on the border line for Shad kill temps. I always look forward to the white spawn run every year. I have never witnessed temps as cold as this. I hope it doesn’t foul up this season.

Thanks for the temp, still too icy here to go see for myself, cant get out of the neighborhood, may have to walk down there for some pics lol

I drove to 36 bridge and the lake is open, no ice in that area. Two pickups in the parking lot with empty boat trailers. Tough guys for sure.

I'm very surprised water temp was 49. That is not bad at all. There have been several years with 49 degree water temps, just not this late in Feb. That is encouraging for sure. I think water has to be in low 40s for a shad kill.