Thread: First time out this year

Took the jon boat out today for a few hours for the first time this year. After forgetting to put in the drain plug and flooding the back half of the boat and re-trailering it to drain it and start again, things went rather well. We marked fish 50 yards from the ramp and got our limit of smallish(8-10 inches) crappie in 4 hours only 250 yds from the ramp. They were biting pretty good with some just taking the minnow and sitting still with it and some darn near jerking the pole in the water. They were in 20 fow down 12 to 15 foot. Water temp was right at 48 degrees minus .4 degrees. Took 4 hours to boat our limit. None of the fish was carrying any eggs. Just wondering how long before spawning do they start showing eggs? The small lake we fish has so many small crappie we have been told to take everything we catch. Still threw a number of less than 8" fish back for another day. The area we fished marked so many fish on the sonar it was amazing. They are certainly bunched up in the deeper water in this lake. Some group was holding a bass tournament and I did not see or hear of anyone having any luck with the bass. Good day on the water with my bud, my son.

If you look closely when you clean them, by September you should be able to see a small sack of eggs. If you cleaned em and they didn't have a yellow sack, they would be males and have a white sack.