Crappies shallow?

[Clayburn]

Is anyone still catching Crappies shallow or are they in post spawn mode already?

[CrappieMagnet]

Well for the most part they are shallow,however crappies will spawn when the water temps reach somewhat consistantly between 60-72 degrees on most inland lakes.River eco systems are somewhat different.Crappies spawn in rivers between the lower and upper 60's.

When the weather gets heated up,with lightning,thunder and heavy rains,the crappies school a little deeper.Than as the weather stabilizes,they move shallow again.

Hope this helps.

CM

[This message has been edited by CrappieMagnet (edited 05-10-2004).]

[mpester]

I fished in the Chisago area this weekend. I was getting a crappie on just about every cast and they do not seem to have moved really shallow yet. I got most of the fish in 8 - 10' and they were about 3 - 4' down. Most were 6 - 7" small. I kept five 9" fish. I got all the fish on a small red and yellow tube jig with a very light jig head. I had a boat full of guys come fish too close to me and they were not getting any fish on minnows while I was getting a lot on the tube jig. I do not think the water was warm enough for the crappies to have spawned. Another couple of weeks and the fish will be spawning.

[Pig_sticka]

The crappies are still in pre-spawn mode from my experiences and with the weather being warm one day and cold the other it still may be another week or 2 until the water temps get warm enough for the crappies.

[hoggs222]

I had the same thing last week. We were catching 9-12 inch crappies last weekend. This past weekend we were only getting 7-8 inch crappies.

[mpester]

Clayburn - What part of the state are you fishing? The southern part of the state will be way ahead of the central and northern part of the state.

[TUMBLEWEED]

Not in shallow yet on Big Marine.
We got some in the deeper side 9-12 ft.
They are staged off the breaks, so
with some more sun it could happen soon.
Water temps were around 56 degrees.
The sunnies were right there too.
Lots of em had that black spot parasites
on them. Kinda ugly to look at.

[Clayburn]

Thanks for the reply guys. My thought is that they're done because guys were tearin em up shallow over a week ago and now the bass are up shallow spawning. Crappies spawn before the bass don't they?

[Pig_sticka]

On the post for catching big crappies:
In my experiences the bigger crappies use the shallows very early and usually dissapear pretty quick.
I have not read a water temp over 58 degrees yet on this site so i doubt the crappies have already spawned. Check the crappies you catch and see if they still have the spawn in them also.
In a week and a half it should be near that 66 degree mark hopefully.

[Dan Wood]

They were stacked deep in very tight schools last week in the south metro. They seem to be just starting to migrate out of the winter holes and staging for the spawn. We found a couple of huge schools out in 17-29' of water. Fish were down 13-19' for the most part and feeding heavily.

I'd expect these fish to move in to spawn shortly, but most haven't yet.

[This message has been edited by Dan Wood (edited 05-11-2004).]

[Lost]

Water temps are still below 60 everywhere I've been fishing. I've found really small (4-5 inchers) in shallows back a few weeks. But nothing big. Of course, every lake is different so they may spawn two weeks later in some lakes than others.

Fishing Crooked Lake last week revealed walleye and bass coming shallow. But where are the panfish?

[Metroguy99]

fished rush lake last weekend(?) they were in almost 6 inches of water. Although they were very spread out . We only got one and a couple bass.