For anyone wondering about the state of the crappie spawn:
For the past three days we have seen more crappie in the bushes on ky lake than I’ve ever seen. On Barkley, we are seeing more bass up shallow. neither lake has a ton of redear up yet, but definitely has some in the classic spots.

Our larval crappie surveys are ongoing, but We haven’t had time to view any of them under the microscope yet.

The spawn window for crappie is about a month usually, but we are definitely seeing a major wave of spawners right now on ky. They need about 8 days minimum to spawn successfully.

Tva is ahead of schedule on lake elevations due to flooding. Normally they would drop below 359 and then bring it back up around May 1st, however, they are going to try to hold it slightly above summer pool for at least ten days since we have fish spawning. Any additional rainfall or flooding could change that strategy because the corps of engineers will then be calling the shots due to flood stages in the rivers.

We’ve actually got spring weather this year so it’s an interesting year for our fish spawns scientifically speaking. Years are almost never good for both crappie and bass, but I hope this year is an exception.