Does anyone know if shellcrackers bed at the same time that bluegills do? I always thought that they spawned before the bluegills did.
The shellcrackers are using the same area that the bluegills usually spawn in. I thought they liked deeper water. I caught 2 bluegills yesterday that weighed 1.5 pounds each near the beds but I am sure that the shellcrackers are the ones on the beds. The bluegill beds have become extremly hard to locate! Thanks for your replies in advance.

David

I just re-read in Lusk's Basic Pond Management this morning (it's standard "reading room" material for me first thing in the A.M.) that RES (normally) spawn before BG. IIRC the CW also states that they like slightly deeper beds.

However, variations in water temp with oddball weather (much more common in small ponds, of course), calender alignment with moon cycles, and the innate perversity of the universe sometimes conspire so that RES and BG are on the beds at the same time. Local water cloudiness issues, limited (premium) spawning bed locations, and I'm sure other factors may cause the two species' beds to be intermingled.

Thanks for your reply. This is the way I thought it was, but over the past 2 years the rolls of the fish ( ie.. bedding and population) have seemed to be reversed. It has been very puzzeling trying to figure out what is going on. This years weather might have something to do w/ it. The temps have been up and down drastically his spring. LMB and RES have been on ond off bed for at least a month.