Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Providing forage for a Crappie only pond

Like MN, I have noticed that my SMB are unable to keep up with or do not prefer BH as forage also. I have collected YOY BH and fed to caged SMB and into my grow out cell and they are largely ignored and eaten only after the BG, FHM and GSH are gone. Since BH swarm in pods for protection...might intimidate the SMB, not sure?

Rex - I, like you, initially thought GSH would serve as a good forage source for HBCP and stocked them into the .1 acre experimental pond with the PVC muskrat problems [you know the one]. Two years later and the HBCP were all around 70 WR and stunted but I had a booming GSH population [thousands]. When I released the HBCP into the main pond, they doubled in size and rebounded quickly during the first 18 months - I credit it to improved fertility [more frequent plankton/zoo blooms] and abundance of YOY BG, RES, and YP. Based on my personal experience alone - which isn't going to be the same for everyone, GSH did not serve as good forage for HBCP.

I find Crappie to be more of a stealthy, floating, quick strike ambush predator. My GSH are more pelagic in nature. From my observation, the HSB seem to have the legs to hunt them down in open water, also being pelagic, and often seem to feed in "packs", working the GSH schools together to the surface. Interestingly, I observe larger SMB cruising along with the HSB "packs" on my camera - and during feeding times they are right along side the much larger HSB - apparently not intimidated, and get their fair share of AM LMB. I never thought of SMB sharing these characteristics with HSB - however due to the lack of cover and structure in my pond, they may have adapted their foraging tactics to be more successful - and follow the HSB around. Just a theory...

Using my AquaVu cameras I note my crappie prefer to hang in the shadows of the dock and between and beneath the cages and pop the swarms of BG that also congregate under the shady docks. One strike, hit or miss, then drift back to the shadows and wait some more. My crappie never chase more than a foot before they reset. I rarely have GSH hanging around the dock, they are typically schooling and hammering pellets in the open water 6' or greater depth.

They also love hanging around the periphery of the green monster light at night and will often swim slowly, on their sides or even upside down, apparently grazing on zoos which are rising at night from the bottom of the pond maybe chasing plankton attracted to the light?

Just my personal observations - I suspect every fishery is unique in some characteristics like these.