Help me figure this out!

[hairy lures]

Beginning around the first of March, the water in our lake really heated up fast (with all the unseasonal warm weather). That seemed to draw the male crappies to shallow water, in preparation for spawning. Caught a few, but no decent sized ones. NEVER saw a female. I don't think their eggs were ripe yet. After a week or so, the males seemed to leave the shallows, and were very hard to find. That has been going on for the last two weeks. The water temp is around 70 (+ or -) now, and there is not a crappie anywhere in the regular spawning areas. I think that the early warm water really screwed everything up, and wonder WHERE they are??? This is a good crappie lake, usually, and this IS the regular time that they spawn, but they aren't where they should be. Any of you crappie gurus have any ideas? Appreciate any help.

[CrappiePappy]

Perhaps they decided to spawn in deeper water than normal (where water temps are more favorable)

I saw that happen a few years back, when we had a early warm spell followed by cold weather ... then a return to more normal conditions. The fish came in, then retreated back out ... and we caught them spawning in 10' of water, where they'd normally be spawning in <7ft of water.

... cp

[waterboy1]

On my home lake the fish were in 5ft of water a week ago, this week with the cold front they pushed out in 25-30ft water.