To Raporter and Bassmanic:
Thanks for the report and the details. I was hoping the fish would be in the shallows this time of the year with this warm spell.
Your report reinforced what I was putting together in my mind as a pattern for this time of year.
Did you catch the fish shallow in the afternoon? The shallows maybe warmer in the late afternoon than in the early morning.
I caught a lot of crappie in Nov and Dec these last two years and have found them with eggs even in Dec. These eggs are being developed for the next spring. But the eggs don't get ripe and you won't see enlarged blood vessels surrounding the eggs until they are getting ready to spawn.
Heck last summer I was catching crappie with eggs still in them up into June. The egg sac were smaller in June than they were in April and they were not full of enlarged bright red blood vessels and the eggs were not bright yellow in June like they are in April and Late March.
Some people say that the crappie re-absorb their eggs if they can't lay them. But I question how they do this. Would it not be easier to just expel the eggs and then turn around and Swallow them? I wonder if there is any research on this that shows how they absorb their eggs.
I simply don't understand how they blood could dissolve the eggs without digestive juices that are in the stomach.
And it may even be possible that the crappie just dump the eggs after a period of time. Maybe they just dump them and don't eat them?
Who really knows what they do with their eggs other than lay them and try to let the males take care of them after that.
Originally Posted by raporter
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