Fishing report

[bassmanic1]

Hey guys ,
Made it out to one of my crappie ponds Thursday 3-12-08 for 4 hours . Got minnows at Smiths on Morgan ave { in Eville } and paddled the jon boat around . Caught three 11" white crappie , lost one crappie and caught one 14" bass , all on med. shiner minnows . Fish were in 1-2 foot of water near wood which was up from 3 weeks ago . Saw a school of small bass cruising the shallows and some minnows up near the bank so I would say the waters warming and the fish are moving some . The crappie were scattered and I had to move around to catch them . I didnt have time to clean them so I iced them down in a cooler and will do it Friday . Ill let you all know if they have any eggs .
Tight lines .

[raporter]

We caught around 40 yesterday on Patoka. Also caught one striper. All were caught on jigs, some under a bobber and most without and with a very slow retrieve. Found them from 2' to very deep.

[Moose1am]

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.

We caught around 40 yesterday on Patoka. Also caught one striper. All were caught on jigs, some under a bobber and most without and with a very slow retrieve. Found them from 2' to very deep.