Trends Affect the Crappie Spawn

The past may be a good but not a sure guide to the next season. Crappies that hatched a few years earlier are the ones spawning this season. Their experience of day length and temperature stability as fry at the place they were spawned is their clue to where and when to spawn. If you caught and released their parents four years ago at a particular time and place, surviving offspring are likely to repeat the process. And individual crappies often select the same spawning location as in previous years, if habitat and water level remain suitable.

Anglers should seek areas that warm early in the spawn and those that warm more slowly later in the spring. Spawning areas exposed to wind and adjacent to deep water likely host the last spawns.

The layout of creek arms and coves can reveal places where shoreline bends trap warm water by preventing winds from blowing the warmer surface water back into the main lake. Coves with 90- to 180-degree bends often warm much earlier than straighter, wind-exposed waters.

Be sure to consider previous prevailing winds and weather patterns when studying your lake maps. Monitor surface water temps with sonar units and drop a probe to investigate key spots.

Prespawn Predicaments for Crappies

If fishing were always easy, would we love it so much? Part of its fascination is facing the challenges that each day on the water brings—where to find fish and how to get them to bite.

Some days, all goes as planned. And that’s fun—to a point. You can tire of catching dozens and dozens of crappies, especially if they’re running the same middling size. Eight or 10 for dinner, and it becomes more fun to experiment and see what they won’t bite, or whether color or lure shape makes much difference.

Without more challenging fishing trips, more of us might take up golf, a head-banger sport if there ever was one. When Tiger double-bogies, is there hope for any of us? Let’s examine conditions that conspire to make spring fishing difficult, and consider ways to continue catching fish when others give up.

Coping with Cold Fronts

There’s no greater enemy to a hot spring crappie bite than a sudden rise in barometric pressure, coupled with chill northwesterly winds that accompany the passing of a cold front. The term brings nervousness to seasoned crappie pros and weekend anglers alike.

From our readers, TV viewers, and website browsers, In-Fisherman staff frequently receive the question, “What is it about a cold front that causes fish to stop biting?” There’s no sure answer, though we know of several effects that alter fishing as weather patterns progress from prefrontal to postfrontal conditions. How these environmental variables physically affect fish remains a mystery. Decades of chasing crappies has revealed solutions beyond putting away the boat for a few days or driving halfway across the country.