Why crappie don't always spawn succesfully...

[gabowman]

Crappie are prolific breeders and are more likely in most lakes to over populate.

Nimrod, I'm trying as hard as I can to do my part to keep that from happening.:D:D:D

[filletfetish]

Your heading has me puzzled! Are you saying that crappie won't spawn at all, for the year? I have never found this to be true! Crappie spawn every year, and sometimes several times a year. A female never deposits all her eggs in one nest, and will deposit her eggs in several nest during the spawn. Just because you aren't finding them where you think they should be, doesn't mean they aren't spawning someplace else. Several years ago around here, they was saying the same thing, that the crappie wasn't spawning, because of the weather. They wasn't finding them on the banks like normal. I got a map, and found a channel out in the lake, where one of the banks came to within a few feet of the surface, and that is where they were spawning. EB

Did you finish reading the entire post? Maybe this should've been story about a little girl crappie that couldn't find any boys to guard her eggs, so SHE didn't drop any eggs. Some of her girlfriends went to a different bar in another part of town and had boys lined up everywhere...they dropped their's.

If you've ever fished lakes that are primarly black crappie lakes, this would be much more evident. Poor recruitment happens, be it unstable water temps or water levels. On the other side, when everything seems so perfect, the spawn is a great success. The only problem then, there's not enough available forage to support such a great year class. Either way, it's the ups and downs that don't allow many of our lakes to maintain a steady flow of healthy, fast growing fish. If you've fished any lake consistently for more than 15 years, you've seen these cycles.

[CrappiePappy]

As I understand it ... Crappie DON'T spawn more than once a year (as do some other sunfish). What happens is, they spawn over a longer period of time, with the conditions present at the time being the prime factor in how long it will take them to complete the mission. People hear about/catch them "spawning" ... then hear about/catch them spawning, weeks later, and assume it's a second spawn. In fact, it's actually the result of periodic interruptions in the spawn, that causes the extension of the time frame.

Many people think that Crappie spawn late in the year, because they start seeing egg sacs. These are actually just the eggs being developed for the following Spring's spawn. Some even see eggs in early summer Crappie, & think they're doing a second spawn. In reality, these are most likely leftovers from the Spring spawn, due to interruptions (from changing conditions) or from a completely abandoned spawning attempt (due to conditions being incompatible with survival of the offspring).

There may even be some misunderstanding about the statement that "female Crappie spawn in more than one male's nest" .... misinterpreting that to mean that Crappie spawn more than "once" per year. As a species, they do not; whereas as individuals they do deposit eggs "more than once" (in more than one nest) ... and that could be where the misunderstanding comes from.

... cp

[shum8]

Ok this is interesting. I work at a power generating facility. And of course we take in cold water and discharge hot. We start catching crappie in October that will have eggs in them. And on the same body of water I caught crappie just the other day that were slap full of eggs. All this being said. It leads me to believe that if all these crappie had a successful spawn. We would have a large population of very small crappie. And probably not what we want. Or, are there so many people catching crappie to prevent this from happening? We have a 9 inch limit and around here if it even comes close to that its as good as kept.

[CrappiePappy]

Ok this is interesting. I work at a power generating facility. And of course we take in cold water and discharge hot. We start catching crappie in October that will have eggs in them. And on the same body of water I caught crappie just the other day that were slap full of eggs. All this being said. It leads me to believe that if all these crappie had a successful spawn. We would have a large population of very small crappie. And probably not what we want. Or, are there so many people catching crappie to prevent this from happening? We have a 9 inch limit and around here if it even comes close to that its as good as kept.

Shum8 ... your Oct Crappie w/eggs are next years spawn. The Crappie you caught "the other day that were slap full of eggs" ... are this years spawners, running late due to the prevailing conditions.
While one would think that a successful spawn would create a large population of small fish ... you have to take into account that the mortality rate is quite high, from one source or another, and can even cause predation by their own species. Fish that are spawned, & survive, have to wait about 3yrs to be mature enough to even attempt spawning, themselves. That's about how long it takes them to reach the 9" length ... so they can be removed from the waters, before they have a chance to spawn ... or before their second year of spawning.

IF Crappie were spawning more than once per year .... they'd overpopulate the waters, and we wouldn't have cyclic production years. They'd also probably never get any bigger than the average Bluegill (~6") since they would require a greater amount of the biomass (foodsource) than the waters could provide, and be in direct competition with their own foodsource (Shad & other minnow & fish species) ... essentially "eating themselves out of house & home".

... cp

[Eager Beaver]

I must not frequent the same bars as you do filletfetish! or your girlie Crappies. hehe EB

[Wannabe...]

Hmmm....I always thought it was because of little crappie headaches. Learn sump'n e'ry day around here.

Wannabe...

[chaunc]

[QUOTE=crappiepappy;1542418]As I understand it ... Crappie DON'T spawn more than once a year (as do some other sunfish). What happens is, they spawn over a longer period of time, with the conditions present at the time being the prime factor in how long it will take them to complete the mission. People hear about/catch them "spawning" ... then hear about/catch them spawning, weeks later, and assume it's a second spawn. In fact, it's actually the result of periodic interruptions in the spawn, that causes the extension of the time frame.

I had a debate about the crappies spawning in the fall on another website, last winter and the guy posted an article from a survey that proved they do spawn in the fall too. Some of those migrations to the shallows then are spawning runs and the trapnets they put out proved it. It was on the fisherie website and i had to apoligize to the guy after saying he was wrong. He proved me wrong. Can't remember what mag the article was in that he showed me. I'm not puter savy enough to find it there. Would someone like to give it a try. Might have been in-fisherman magazine from last year. Not sure.

[chaunc]

Think i found that debate.
Crappie with egg sacs
Hope i did this right. If not , sorry.

[CrappieJed]

in Cal i have caught Crappie full of eggs in May/June and again in Jan/Feb you bet they spawn more then once a year...they will spawn deep and they will spawn shallow...no rhyme no reason survival is what has to happen...water temp is and will always be the key factor...but of course you already know that...