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Thread: To early for females to have eggs?

  1. #1
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    Default To early for females to have eggs?


    I caught a female Sunday night that had eggs inside of her. Its the second female I have caught in the creek coming into the lake. Is it to early for them to have eggs? They weren't fully developed or anything... Around how long do you think before the crappie will be spawning if they already have eggs around here... Was just curious if anyone else is catching any with eggs or not?

    Thanks,

    -VCM

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    We had crappie down in Texas with eggs around late November. Still developing.
    Lots of crappie have been caught with eggs. (More than usual...)

    Spawning depends on water temp. When it gets around 60, they should be moving up.
    Should be 2-3 weeks depending on where u live and any drastic cold fronts.

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    The lake I fish has a water temperature of 48 degrees right now but, we are going to have a cold front this weekend. I have been bank fishing and I've only been having luck right at 5pm until dark. Its really odd on Saturday caught my first crappie of the day at 5:03pm and on Sunday first one was caught at 4:52pm. I am guessing they are coming in during the evening times to feed... who knows...

    -VCM

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    that would be the warmest part of the day. It may be mostly males coming in to scope it out with a few females. You caught the agressive females.
    They will push in/out with fronts until the magic temp.
    It may be 57-58 as far north as you are. I'm not sure how much the spawning temp changes as you move north through Missouri, Minnesota and across the border.

  5. #5
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    I'll find little egg sacks forming as early as August around here.

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    Water temps here only have gotten down to 56° here this winter so far and I'm catching females with fully developed egg sacks!

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  7. #7
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    They start putting on eggs in August and September. By February, they are filling out nicely.
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  8. #8
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    Cane Pole is offline Crappie.com 2011 Man of the Year * Crappie.com Supporter
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    The few I caught look like the about 7 month along. ha
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    I cleaned 24 a couple days ago and alot of them had eggs.
    "It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt." Abraham Lincoln

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    From what I understand ... shortly after the spawn and thru the Summer months, Crappie will feed to sustain themselves and grow in size. In the late Summer to Fall period, their egg development will begin for the upcoming Spring spawn. The cooler water temps urge them on to feed up, not only for egg development, but also to sustain them thru the cold water period. Since their metabolism is dictated by the water temp, they don't feed as often, but they also don't move around as much. Once the egg development begins, much of the nutrition they take in is used to grow/develop those eggs. When the water temps being to rise again in late Winter, early Spring, the metabolism rises ... and the feeding need also ratchets up, in order to finish off the egg production, sustain them thru the rigors of spawning, and still leave them with the energy to survive & continue their life cycle.
    As has been mentioned ... it's all about the water temps, since that dictates the cycle (feeding/growing/spawning). Other factors have their influence, but water temps trump everything since the Crappie is a cold blooded animal.

    ... cp

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