Crappie eggs before spawn

[seaweed01]

Does anyone know what crappie eggs look like before the spawn? I caught
some this past weekend that were all females. Their eggs looked like large
grains of sugar (size). I was wondering if they are ready to spawn or do the
eggs get larger like perch and other fish eggs do. Any scientific comments or
experience from you crappies "fishermen" would be appreciated. Thanks in
advance.
Pete

[seaweed01]

Doesn't anyone have a comment?

[USMC130FE]

Seaweed,

I finally figured out my favorite "Crappie" hole and had a GREAT day putting about 40 Slabs in the boat.  I kept 15 for the frying pan and as I was cleaning them I noticed the eggs were very yellow and soft to the touch.  I think the fish are getting ready to spawn by the texture of the eggs.  The size was appox. the size of sugar grains and it didn't matter the size fish was as is the case for perch.  Hopefully I'll get out in the next 3-4 days and if I get into them again I'll keep a few to check on the size of the eggs.  I guess I'll have to force myself in eating a couple more fried Crappie sandwiches    The perch we caught a few weeks ago had the same consistancy as the Crappies I just caught and now we don't get any perch with eggs in them so based on this info I think the Crappies are going to be spawning real soon.  Hope this helped answer your question.

Tight Lines,
Steve

[carpcatcher]

I'm no professor but crappie egg's don't get an big as perch egg's. From my experiences they should get a little bigger but not much before spawning. I have found that the male's will hit the spawning ground's long before the femails, so if you caught them where they spawn they are getting close. As I said earlier, this is just what I have found over the years of catching them. USMC if you dont have room to keep your crappie's just overnite them to me, I'll throw some beef out of the freezer to make room
        Jim

[USMC130FE]

Most of the fish I caught were still in water that was 14-18 FOW and if you could locate any structure along the drop off they would be stacked around it.  Unfortunately you could only pick up 2-3 and then that group would stop hitting the baits.  I just kept working the drop line and working them up.   The Crappies that I caught that were shallower were a bit smaller and quite a bit darker (assume their males) probably were getting set for the spawn.

Carpcatcher, make a deal with you..... clean out the freezer a bit and then head over this way and you can bring the filet's you catch and save me the postage.    I'm having a great spring with the Crappies and Panfish with some of the Crappies reaching 14+ inches and Bluegills to 10".  Offers there!!

Tight Lines,
Steve