Shellcracker on beds?

[Randall53]

Does anyone else fish for them? I haven't found any spawning yet. I'm wondering if our crazy spring weather has slowed them down like it did the crappie.

[KahrMan]

Not sure on the shell crackers but the bass and just starting to make their beds in our neighbor hood pond.

[jpx2rk]

Some of the comments I've read on other forums indicate they are not to be found on beds in the middle TN area.  

[Randall53]

Thanks for the replies. Here on Chickamauga, the crappie were around 3 weeks or so behind and for some reason the lake level is still about 1.5 ft below normal summer pool. Still good fish'n though. Patience is the key.

[jpx2rk]

Thanks for the info on the Chick, I'm not far from the Chick, road trip.  LOL

[Randall53]

1 hour ago, jpx2rk said:

Thanks for the info on the Chick, I'm not far from the Chick, road trip.  LOL

Be sure to check for tournaments if you're coming down on the weekend. The ramps fill up fast, especially Harrison Bay and Chester Frost. Here's a good website to keep up with the action on the Chick:

http://www.chattanoogafishingforum.com/category-view.asp

[jpx2rk]

9 hours ago, Randall53 said:

Be sure to check for tournaments if you're coming down on the weekend. The ramps fill up fast, especially Harrison Bay and Chester Frost. Here's a good website to keep up with the action on the Chick:

http://www.chattanoogafishingforum.com/category-view.asp

Yeah, I know about the chick, read where there is bass tourney there this weekend.  No way would I go out in an attempt to fish on a holiday weekend.  Too many "recreational" boaters that really don't need to be out on the water IMO.  LOL

[bersaguy]

A few of my buddies have been looking for Shell Cracker beds on Old Hickory and are catching a dew here and there but not finding any beds yet. I willi go when they finally go on beds. I have three places on OHL that they will bed in one of them every year and one good is all a person needs to put a bunch in the freezer. I went last year and found to large beds and put over a 200 filets in the freezer in 3 days. Good luck to yall...........

[Randall53]

What depth are the beds you usually find? They are some very fine eating!

[DaveS]

We caught the daylights out of Shell Crackers at the end of April. My thoughts are that they spawned already. The water temps were about right then (62-65 degrees) on Barkley and Kentucky lakes. Very few being caught now.

DaveS

[Randall53]

1 hour ago, DaveS said:

We caught the daylights out of Shell Crackers at the end of April. My thoughts are that they spawned already. The water temps were about right then (62-65 degrees) on Barkley and Kentucky lakes. Very few being caught now.

DaveS

Their probably back out in deeper water then. Thanks!

[bersaguy]

On ‎5‎/‎28‎/‎2016 at 9:37 PM, Randall53 said:

What depth are the beds you usually find? They are some very fine eating!

I just spoke with a buddy yesterday and he said he found 2 beds on Wednesday in about 3 feet of water on Old Hickory and he brought 30 males back home. He does same thing I do. He only will keep the larger males that are almost Black and releases the females and smaller males so the spawn will continue and the Shell Crackers will always be in our lakes. And yea, I like eating them better than Crappie and they are much more fun on light tackle than crappie are to catch!!!!.................... 

[Randall53]

2 hours ago, bersaguy said:

I just spoke with a buddy yesterday and he said he found 2 beds on Wednesday in about 3 feet of water on Old Hickory and he brought 30 males back home. He does same thing I do. He only will keep the larger males that are almost Black and releases the females and smaller males so the spawn will continue and the Shell Crackers will always be in our lakes. And yea, I like eating them better than Crappie and they are much more fun on light tackle than crappie are to catch!!!!.................... 

I agree Bersaguy. Those are good rules to follow on the shellcrackers. On crappie I only keep those between 11" and 13" or 13.5" long. I don't think the ones below 11" have enough meat after filleting and is a waste of time. The ones larger than 13 and a half inches or so have a lot coarser meat to them and the wife doesn't like them as much. So I use my own slot limit. After the holiday weekend, I'm going to get back out and see what I can find. Thanks for the info!! 

[Oh Shoot]

11 hours ago, bersaguy said:

...He does same thing I do. He only will keep the larger males that are almost Black and releases the females and smaller males so the spawn will continue and the Shell Crackers will always be in our lakes.

Umm, those fish don't screw, ya know -- the males don't milt on the eggs until after the females lay them. So if you take the males before that happens, you are limiting the spawn, not helping it. The actual timing is something you really can't know except maybe to cut into a few females and see if they still have their eggs.

- OS

Edited May 30, 2016 by Oh Shoot

[bersaguy]

14 hours ago, Oh Shoot said:

Umm, those fish don't screw, ya know -- the males don't milt on the eggs until after the females lay them. So if you take the males before that happens, you are limiting the spawn, not helping it. The actual timing is something you really can't know except maybe to cut into a few females and see if they still have their eggs.

- OS

I understand that Oh Shoot. But what happens is the dominate males will prevent the smaller males from getting on the beds. If you remove a bunch of dominate males from the bedding area that opens the door for the younger males to service the beds thus keeping the Shell cracker populations thriving. That is why I don't keep any of the yonger males or females. I learned this from a TWRA fish biologist back about 15 years ago. The females that have their dominate male taken will go and get a younger male to do her deeds with the dominate ones gone.

[Oh Shoot]

On 5/30/2016 at 11:34 AM, bersaguy said:

I understand that Oh Shoot. But what happens is the dominate males will prevent the smaller males from getting on the beds. If you remove a bunch of dominate males from the bedding area that opens the door for the younger males to service the beds thus keeping the Shell cracker populations thriving. That is why I don't keep any of the yonger males or females. I learned this from a TWRA fish biologist back about 15 years ago. The females that have their dominate male taken will go and get a younger male to do her deeds with the dominate ones gone.

Flies in the face of the competitive breeding part of evolution, which maintains and enhances the overall viability of a species. Dominant males, by the simple fact they have lived long enough to be dominant,  possess the best characteristics to impart back into to the common genome.

The fact that both males and females are capable of reproduction very early in their possible life spans found in much of nature does indeed enhance the chances of species longevity in the short run, but competitive breeding is what enhances the viability of that same population in the long run by improving not just the quantity but the quality of that quantity.

To a large extent, it's the same with homo sapiens too, but technology resulting from our collective brain power has minimized the superiority gained from competitive breeding and indeed a larger percentage of the population that would not have survived period in the past now remains extant and viable for reproduction. Whether our departure from such basic tenets of nature will prove to be an overall detriment to our species in the long run remains to be seen.

/thus endeth deep thoughts regarding the TN shellcracker population.

- OS

Edited June 3, 2016 by Oh Shoot

[bersaguy]

17 hours ago, Oh Shoot said:

Flies in the face of the competitive breeding part of evolution, which maintains and enhances the overall viability of a species. Dominant males, by the simple fact they have lived long enough to be dominant,  possess the best characteristics to impart back into to the common genome.

The fact that both males and females are capable of reproduction very early in their possible life spans found in much of nature does indeed enhance the chances of species longevity in the short run, but competitive breeding is what enhances the viability of that same population in the long run by improving not just the quantity but the quality of that quantity.

To a large extent, it's the same with homo sapiens too, but technology resulting from our collective brain power has minimized the superiority gained from competitive breeding and indeed a larger percentage of the population that would not have survived period in the past now remains extant and viable for reproduction. Whether our departure from such basic tenets of nature will prove to be an overall detriment to our species in the long run remains to be seen.

/thus endeth deep thoughts regarding the TN shellcracker population.

- OS

Thanks OS for the wonderful explanation of fish making whoopi but I do tend to follow what the TWRA fish biologists go by since after all breeding and raising fish for stocking is what they do.....................