Hi Folks,

From my other posts, y'all might know that I am planning a large pond/small lake as a single-species crappie BOW in the Appalachians when my wife and I get the land. We know the difficulty of accomplishing it, but we are determined to try, due to the special place we both have in our hearts for that type of fish.

I plan to get a good, established population of fatheads and golden shiners (as well as crawfish, according to what y'all have told me just now) before adding crappie, and to have smaller forage ponds uphill where I raise golden shiners and crawfish in one, and fatheads in the other for supplemental stocking to the main BOW.

I have determined that there is no way threadfin shad will be viable in a place where water gets so cold. My thinking is that the greater number of forage species, the better, and want to know what other species y'all might recommend. I have identified common shiners, emerald shiners, spottail shiners, and some types of dace as possible candidates, and wonder if any of these or another species is a good idea. Particularly, is there a pelagic species that would work in my geographic target region? Both fatheads and golden shiners are very cover-oriented, and my research suggests that having a pelagic species would not only be good for the crappie, but would take a lot of pressure off of the goldens and fatheads.

Thanks in advance

I never knew crappie ate crayfish?

In another thread I read where CJ posted Spottail shiners are known to do well in ponds. IMO if you have access to those, I think they would be a good choice if you want to add some diversity to your forage base. As when stocking anything, I recommend you do the research on them, determine what habitat they require and make sure you have/provide it before stocking.

AR-Tenner. have you and your bride considered Hybrid Black Crappie? Smallmouth Bass, Walleye, Hybrid Striped Bass and Yellow Perch could be good additions to your smaller forage, plus provide amazing tasting table fare.

Hybrid Crappie reproduce, but the offspring are inferior to the parents and are controllable by some predators.

Redear sunfish are a panfish that should be added to control snails, and the parasites snails host.

If your golden shiners establish well and have some cover, I doubt regular Black Crappie will control them, and if your Crappie pull off a couple boom spawns, the GSH will outgrow the stunted BCP that will be everywhere.

Actual carrying capacity in any pond is forever changing, but if it were static and could support a maximum 1000# of fish, it could be I, 1000# fish, 1000 one pounders, or 16,000 one ounce fish....every spawn, without balanced predation, you get more, yet smaller fish.

Thanks a lot, those are good points! I am pretty determined to go single-species, since it has been established in my other thread that yellow perch and crappie would not control one another's numbers and prevent stunting well.

We are big on having whatever species are there be delicious, and so I have essentially ruled out bass. I am wondering what you think about smallmouth, though. I find largemouth bass to taste disgusting, but I have heard that smallmouth taste better.

The only apex predator species I would really consider to control the crappie is the walleye, as they taste awesome, and they are one of only two major gamefish species I have never successfully pursued. They are supposed to be a challenge in a small lake, but I am going to have professional help in designing the BOW, it will be several acres, and I think I will be able to get them to reproduce successfully.

I think everything eats crayfish

AR-Tenner. I haul and stock fish for a living, but am not a big fan of eating them. I don't think I've ever eaten SMB, but YP and WE I love!