Sailfins & Flagins don't really intensify in color at spawning time like most other shiners, keeping their good colors year-round. The male Sailfins will get longer fins, but that's about it.
No, I don't think they've spawned yet, although they might have. They usually wait until after Easter and the Easter Freeze that always comes right before it. ( the cold snap we're experiencing this very week, in fact ) It won't be long now, though. All they need are longer daylength and water in the 74F-ish temp. Sometimes they spawn in late April if Easter comes early, but mid-May is more the usual. That's only when they START, though. They'll spawn a few more times before it starts to get really hot in midsummer.
As for finding Sailfins in "full sail", yes, you'll have to wait a couple more months, or go much further south. Grandipinnis will still not be living up to it's name yet, but give 'em another 60 days and prepare to be dazzled.
Welakas get their full fins and full color depending on where you find them. If you find them in a big spring, where the temp is more stable, it takes them longer, until around late June/July.
In creeks, which warm up faster, you can sometimes start seeing terminal males in late May. You probably wouldn't want to try snorkeling in those muddy holes, though. You'd lose a flipper in the muck! LOL
EDIT: Note that the Easter Freeze has nothing to do with religion, but with the fact that Easter is tied to some meteorlogical/climatological/astronomical thing I don't understand, which is why it moves around the calendar evey year instead of always being on the same day. Fish don't have farmer's almanacs to read, but they someow seem to know what's what anyway. It's also why you don't plant anything until after Palm Sunday. Again, not a religious thing so much as a coincidence. Please don't have a spaz and start complaining about religion creeping into a fish discussion.
Edited by Mysteryman, 16 April 2014 - 09:29 PM.
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