Just to share my experience with BCP, when I moved here in March, 2012 I had a 2 acre pond previously stocked with LMB, BCP, GC and CC. The person who stocked it was clueless and just put in there the kind of fish he wanted to catch. I'm guessing it satisfied his goals of just catching his desired species, yet he didn't live here or own the place and fished it only 2-3 times per year. It was a very neglected BOW, loaded with FA, Coontail, etc. All the LMB were 12" max, I caught no CC but was catching 13" Crappie and was pretty excited about it, and released them not knowing any better.
I then began learning from the good folks here.
In June of 2012 I had what I thought was a complete fish-kill, finding dead CC, BCP, LMB and GC with the smallest fish dying first, finding them all along the shoreline. The bigger fish were floating over the next 2 days.
After adding aeration and ridding the pond of FA and weeds, on September 1, of 2012 I stocked 100 LMB, 100 HSB and 5-23-13 stocked 1500 BG (totally backwards, I know).
Well, the BCP must have had that "big boom" spawn in 2012 and survived the fish-kill, because in the Spring of last year I started catching Crappie in the 3-4" range and so many that by the end of April I started counting.
As of the end of October, we had pulled over 1600 Crappie out of the pond, with some days fishing 3-4 hours and pulling over 100 BCP each time. It became a quest, cursing each one at the end of my hook with the result being some very fat and happy Coons! (cleaned and ate many but at that size, it's really a PITA).
I can only hope that I've put a good dent in the BCP population but on the same hand, it's very discouraging to read
It is HIGHLY unlikely other pond predators will control a spawn that succeeds, as crappie spawn well before LMB or CC.I was hoping that the HSB (now 15"+) and LMB (12"+) would control a likely BCP spawn this Spring but we'll see and can only hope for a "bust" spawn.
So from first-hand experience, I still enjoy Crappie but not from my pond! And when other pond owners, or "fishing experts" outside of PB suggest I stock Crappie, I pass on what I've learned and experienced.
But for the guy who stocked them, he was out last Fall to fish the pond and cursed me for stocking BG and wanting the Crappie removed. He told me trophy LMB was his goal and it was just stupid of me and just didn't make sense to want to add BG and remove the Crappie (and he released every one he caught
). This is a guy not worth arguing with so hopefully he's discouraged enough to not come back!
So URUP, please do your research before adding BCP, but if you're intent on adding them, I may still have plenty to give away.
Anxious for Spring,
Keith
