Crappie Spawn Experience (temp or photoperiod)

In recent weeks being cooped up teaching kiddos from home has afforded me a bit more time to chat with friends recently about the upcoming fishing expeditions we have planned. Many of our annual trips revolve around pre-spawn crappies, we don’t keep any if they are on beds actually spawning.

One of our most debated conversations every year is which climactic factor is the bigger or more significant trigger for the crappie spawn. Is it the water temp hitting 62-66, or is it the photoperiod? In my experience which is mostly on lakes granted, but by far and away my most successful indicator for the spawn beginning in earnest is that magic water temp of 62. But, one of my best friends, an avid fisherman and scientist who works in fisheries has always maintained that the length of day is the biggest factor, he claims on bitter cold springs he’s seen WI slabs on beds spawning in 52 degree water at the end of May/early June. I can only recall one time in my angling life (15-ish years) where I have seen crappies spawning on beds in less than 60 degree water. What gives? In your experience, what have you found or learned?

Personally I think we are early here. When we had 55 degree water just last week I would have sworn we were only days away from the spawn, but then the big chill set in again. This morning the water was between 45 and 47 degrees where I fished in several locations and zero fish. We marked crappies in nearby deeper water but they could not be persuaded to hit. A major league cold front with slightly dropping water levels were possible contributors to the poor bite too. We caught two crappies in water that was 52 degrees in one sheltered location. So I do feel that water temp is a big factor for spawning in general. I also know there are variables to the temperature thing.

My pet lake has an abundance of deep water. There’s also shallow water areas. One particular stretch of water has a deeper channel that comes up to about a 5 foot bench that parallels the shore and tapers into the shallow shoreline where the bulk of the spawning for that portion of the lake occurs. Much like what we are seeing recently with the chill is that the shoreline water has no temperature stability, while that five foot water hasn’t really changed much since it hit 53-55 degrees last week and last week I cleaned 3 quite large hen crappies that had shed eggs already, but those fish all came from the five foot water. When I am keeping fish and want to be able to identify one or some later for some reason, like coming from the bench water, I pop a hole in the top of the tail fin with a paper punch. I did this with the three hens last week and when they were cleaned they showed no spawn. So my thinking is that these larger, older, fish spawn significantly earlier, cooler and deeper where the water has stability and isn’t affected much by wind or thermal activity, and probably not even by the barometric changes we see so many of at this time of year. The lesser sized fish were still staging along the shoreline when these 3 larger hens were taken and all of the males were smoky dark but not anywhere near the black they usually get.

As for available light, trees are super good indicators of the photoperiod. I always see the best spawn related crappie fishing when the catkins from birch trees and elm seeds littler the water along with cottonwood lint. None of these have been seen yet. The woods’ trees are not leafed out enough yet either and Dutchman’s Britches wild flowers are showing yet…..when they’ve gone brown the crappies will be spawning soon. This is why I say we’re early for the general spawn, but I’m convinced the very large, more mature crappies do things a bit different IF they have the area to do it like this lake of mine does.

I think you’re both right, in part.

Thanks for the deep response Tom. My plant indicator has always been when the lilacs are in bloom. I have always believed that the bigger crappies in the lake spawn deeper as well but never in such cold water as you have seen already. It certainly stands to reason that the larger fish would spawn in more stable conditions and potentially earlier given that if the theory of natural selection and genetics holds true. Biologically, the mature fish would spawn first to ensure the genetic progress and population of a lake assuming the mature females lay more eggs and a higher quality of egg than do more immature females.

I have yet to recover this article from In-fisherman from years (8-10 years) ago but it was in the bits and pieces section, but in the write-up radio trackers were placed on black crappie females in a Dakota lake for study by some university. At any rate, in that example from what I remember of the article the females were all 12 inches or larger (12 to 14 inches was assumed their reproductive “prime”). What they found was fascinating, the trackers tracked multiple of these females who only came in shallow (less than 4 feet) for just under 25 minutes. They spawned out completely in that time and in the span of that 25-ish minutes they went from staging in 10-12 ft, to shallow, spawning, to returning to the same staging area in 10-12 ft as post spawn fish.

I think clarity of the water has a big impact on the spawn one lake I fish the bigger Crappies and Gills spawn at 10-12 feet but they will make runs into shallow muck dark bottom bays but not spawn there in this particular lake. They seem to spawn a little later as I presume the clear water does not warm as fast, this lake is large enough the total spawn may take up to 3-4 weeks as different parts warm faster then others. So I do not know if hours of daylight or water temp makes the final move to spawn each lake may be a bit different. Or maybe each fish genetics are different, some late and some early spawners.

Was out today mostly chasing Bass but were in areas where crappies were plentiful last week. The water temps last week were 58-61. The crappies were loading up and I thought just about to truly spawn. Those same areas today were only 51-52 deg. Almost a 10 deg. Drop in a week. Almost o crappies or bass in the same area as were loaded with both a week ago. Fast falling water temps this time of the year really mess’s up the spawn. I believe if the water stays to cold long enough both crappies and bass will not spawn at all. Hope with the much warmer temps this weekend and early next week they can pull back up shallow and get their spawn done.

Tom P. wrote:

I think clarity of the water has a big impact on the spawn

I agree with you on this Tom. The lake I fish the most can be bothered with sudden high water events that carry a lot of muddy silt. I’ve seen crappies right at the spawn ditch the whole thing when a sudden rise in water carrying a lot of sediment comes along and it doesn’t have to be a huge rise in the water….I’ve seen 6 inches of dirty water stop the whole thing if the water and dirt persist for an extended length of time.

I hate seeing a whole year class of crappies get nixed, but man, the size of the crappies a couple years down the road with less feeding competition due to the lost year class can be super impressive.

Tom makes a good point here, we all assume that a big year class every year is what makes for a great crappie lake, really it makes for stunted fish-Mother nature knows best, and most lakes have a good year class only occasionally. DNR people know the research on this stuff but still sometimes get pressured into stocking walleyes every year. Anyway with the upcoming weather those specks will all be post spawn soon enough.

The advantage Crappies have over many fish is they are filter feeders so if the lake has a very good zooplankton base Crappies can do very well. One lake I fish has such a base with enough depth it supports ( cannot remember the name ) plankton that rises after dark, it gets so thick depth finder is almost useless DI will kinda get thru it to mark fish. What happens is during the day I will find schools of Crappies and as the Sun goes down these fish break from the schools and spread out, which then becomes strictly a trolling bite.

I’ve never heard of crappies being filter feeders but I do know they are quite adept at plucking the smallest plankton around out of the water. The crappies are very adaptable as far as diet goes and will feed on the tiny stuff as subsistence, but they really like larger portions if they’re available.

Many years ago I was invited into the Culprit staff as a field staff for their , at the time, new crappie and panfish division. The first baits I requested were the paddletails. I got my baits about mid-December. One February afternoon I drove out on the lake to fish a hole that I found during the open water period and had not seen soul one drilling over it all thru the ice season. I was out there because of a reported afternoon, early evening bite when clouds of planktons showed up and crappies hit on small jigs and spikes. I found my hole and cut a couple holes. In one I dropped what was getting the fish. In the other I dropped one of those 1 1/2″ paddletails on a 1/64 head with a #6 hook. In twenty minutes I had a limit of crappies on that paddletail. I never lasted until the swarm of plankton showed. And that paddletail was all I used until the ice broke up.

Crappies, we know, will feed on all kinds of sizes of food from the tiny jigs and spikes to jigging raps and a few other small, but larger than a bug, hard jigging baits and jigging spoons, but the soft plastic still to this day is unsung under the ice when it really should be looked at at times as a serious crappie bait. While I’ve caught all sizes of crappies from 3″ to 16 inches on the traditional ice tackle, I’ve taken more BIG crappies on plastics in open water and from under the ice. No doubt the crappies can and do feed on tiny organisms but I’m convinced that if offered they chose to feed larger.

If I had to choose which ONE springtime influence determined the spawn for crappies, I would have to call it on the water temperature as I have seen far too many instances where 1 or 2 degrees made all the difference in the world, regardless of the moon position or available light. Cody mentions lilacs blooming as one of his visual references to crappies and spawning. Our lilacs are going to bloom inside of two days with the much warmer temps coming yet this week. I’d be willing to bet that with this warmer weather coming we’ll see the spawn really take off before Friday of this week in spite of the crappies being so invisible on Tuesday in the throes of a major cold front and much colder water than three days prior. Unless tonight’s and tomorrows rains bring high water, the spawn will be over by this time next week except for the males watching over the beds and fresh fry. When the opportunity knocks crappies do not waste time on my lake. As Tom P mentions, larger bodies of water can see different portions of the lake go into spawn mode at different times as those areas warm to the right conditions.

With reference to males on beds protecting eggs or fry, I don’t like fishing them. You can tell if males are on guard duty by simply cutting the bend of the jig hook off and putting a plastic on what’s left and fish it under under a float. Toss it to where you’ve getting hit. If the float moves off to the side a couple feet, maybe eve being taken down a foot when it moves off, then just stops, that’s the male taking what he perceives as something he didn’t want there carrying it out of the nest’s boundary. He’ll do that all day. But every time he has to do this the eggs/fry are at risk of being eaten by crawfish or minnows lurking nearby. Carp can suck every egg up in a heartbeat. When the males are on guard duty its time for me to go to the river and chuck some top waters on weedlines.

Great conversation everyone, the depth of knowledge and experience among all of the anglers here is truly astounding, which is the main reason I frequently read and rely on IDO for quality discussion when I have the urge to post. I guess our round about conversation goes to show us a couple of things from our consensus.
1.) Water temperature seems to edge out photo period in terms of importance in our estimation, although the correct water temp in many cases tends to coincide with correct natural photo periods (wow mother nature, you are amazing). But if they do not coincide early “colder” water spawning may occur especially in the more mature fish of a given lake.
2.) If not presented with ideal conditions, crappies adapt, food wise or spawning wise which certainly can be a benefit to the lake and size structure, therefore negating the loss of genetic progress, and eliminating stunting.
3.) We have to treat each lake differently, Tom S, I would venture to bet you have probably spent the better part of a lifetime fishing this lake of yours, year in and year out, yet even you don’t quite understand all of the intricacies of the spawning period, you certainly have a great handle on it, but as with me questions still loom.
4.) Spring weather patterns are never exactly the same, therefore calendars are useless when timing the crappie bite, they are a rough indicator but so many more atmospheric factors control the biological clock for crappies.

One final point on the filter feeders, I have read numerous article in In-fisherman, god I love that publication, that mention the crappies ability to “strain” the phytoplankton and other microscopic plankton through their gill rakers, thus catching them inside their mouth/oral cavity, which they can then ingest. Which, I believe is also something that sets Black and White Crappies apart and also explains why Black Crappie are more prolific in our northern climates. I have seen this play out numerous times on the ice after sunset, flasher units are virtually indistinguishable, and crappies that were schooled below an hour earlier, are now gone, spread out filtering schools of plankton I presume. I’ve tried countless times catching them in this condition, but hole hopping is mostly futile, and it seems more effective to put as many lines out with tip downs or dead sticks and hole hop only if you are feeling ambitious or lucky.

Upon a bit more research I found that both White and Black crappie as juveniles use their gill rakers to filter the plankton and consume them, however, as they grow larger and more mature they cannot consume enough of the plankton to sustain prolonged growth. This adds some credence to Tom S’s theory about crappies, selectively choosing larger baits when available in the right conditions. I could also see plankton playing a larger role in winter diets for our crappies when food in the form of minnows or other bugs might be less plentiful than during the open water months.

Back to temp. vrs light-up on Rainey Lake those crappies are not waiting around for 63 degrees they spawn earlier, that 63 degree mark might be optimal for hatching but part of what nature wants to do is get that tiny fish as big as possible before winter sets in. Guessing that if we were to have a couple more weeks of cold those crappies would spawn anyway (based on light). Not too far north of the Minnesota border with Canada their or no crappies at all. I was hoping someone with more of a biology background (Nick are you reading?) would chime in on this, all I have is a little knowledge, and ‘a little knowledge is a dangerous thing’ as the saying goes.

Not crappies and thus may not be applicable across species, but a similar question was addressed by some researchers who published the results of controlled experiments with ciscos a while back. They found water temperature was absolutely the key determinant of spawning activity vs. photoperiodism. Food for thought…

As for Tom’s big bait observation, I tend to agree. As an example, where I fish the crappies can get very large. We started using Livescope this year and could track them as they move around the basin during the course of the spring. At times, they are suspended at a perfect depth for a suspending jerkbait. We’ve caught a number of big crappies sharp-shooting them with a Megabass Vision 110 or 110+1. These are bass sized baits with many times the mass of a 1.5” paddletail. The fish had no problem eating them and attacked with a strong ‘thump’ that would fool even the most seasoned basser. We’ve also caught plenty of them on size 6 Rippin Raps.

Great thread. Thanks to all who have contributed.

tim hurley wrote:

Back to temp. vrs light-up on Rainey Lake those crappies are not waiting around for 63 degrees they spawn earlier, that 63 degree mark might be optimal for hatching but part of what nature wants to do is get that tiny fish as big as possible before winter sets in.

Thanks for contributing on this Tim, I was hoping someone from the far northern edge of the crappie range would reply. I know the crappies still inhabit further north of Rainy but I have always wanted to do a case study based on latitude that compares crappies spawning habits. Take similar bodies of water and divide them into 4 or 5 different latitude bands starting from southern Canada and transitioning down toward southern Illinois. I have always wanted to understand how that latitude difference works.

I know for two years I was up in Manitoba chasing crappies in late June on ironically walleye trips and the first year we were up there June 22nd and the lodge owner said that water temps were the highest they had been for the year @ a measly 60 degrees. Now based on the temperature theory those fish in that lake should have been pre spawn and just getting revved up to spawn in earnest. The entire trip the water slowly warmed to a crescendo of 65 degrees by the end of the week. Every single day we patrolled shallow cover and bulrush beds and we never saw a fish on a bed guarding or prepping. We tried deeper water and it honestly seemed like there was not a crappie in the lake. We ended up catching 3 total that whole trip in what should have been ideal spawning temperature except for the fact that it was already June 22nd by which time most years they are long done at that point.

Fast forward one year, same trip, same lake, we booked one week earlier, arriving on June 15th. Warmer spring, got there, owner said water temps were in the low 70s. I was disheartened until we drove through those exact shallow water areas we scouted the previous year, every day and my god those bulrush beds were simply alive with crappies, everywhere you looked, they were sitting on beds in 72 degree water. We caught both males and females, pre and post spawners that week. We caught and released hundreds and hundreds of them, only keeping fish that we needed for supper as post spawn females. Water level did go up roughly one foot from year one to year two, according to lodge owner.

So therefore, in this situation we knew the year earlier we were in the right spots they wanted to spawn in but they weren’t even staging outside of them as if they had finished or were about to come in. And I know with certainty that lake did not all of a sudden magically produce thousands of mature crappies by magic in one year. The only rational explanation we could come up with for the difference was: 1.) that photo period was more optimal 2.) the subtle 1 foot change in water level triggered the spawn (we were fishing roughly 4.5 feet the second year compared to 3.5 feet the first year) 3.) The crappie population on that lake is at carrying capacity and they only spawned when they felt that their year class could find enough food in a given year 4.) Some other random factor we hadn’t even considered yet lol.

FYI the walleye bite both years was very good, they seemed to be set up on same locations, depths and presentations of previous year. I’ve always wanted to go back and try again but I have developed a soft spot for the big eyeballs of Lac Seul, plus my trip partners aren’t crappie psycho’s like me.

Now this has been some fun reading.

As Tom S said I am sure they prefer larger food and that is why trolling crankbaits when they are spread out vying for zoo plankton is a killer as I am offering them what they really want something substantial.

Mother nature is always not very friendly as she will eliminate the ones that spawn to early or to late over time as those off spring will not survive very well. Same can be said for all fish species that have true weather seasons as we do up here in the Nort land. Down south many fish spawn twice a year.