Talk me out of crappie - Pond Boss Forum

I am very new to this site and have really enjoyed it so far. I am currently designing a 1.5 acre pond with an average depth of 12'. I was hoping to stock with Bass,Bream, Catfish and Crappie. I have seen no mention of crappie ofr stocking. Do they create a population problem or is it ok?

You are new here! and have not looked very far into the forum archives for crappie info. There are lots and lots of pros, cons and discussions of crappie for ponds of all sizes. Almost too much crappie talk. It is scattered all over the place in this forum sometimes under unsuspecting topics. Do a search using the "search" choice at the upper most right corner. Search under most every topic/heading available to get all of it. Print it out, read it carefully. Then come back with a specific question if you still have unknowns.

There may be lots of crappie talk, but virtually nothing on this board is crappy! $;\)$

bearbait - Just for my own curosity, I went and searched all the forum topics for discussion about crappie. Results follow:
Creating Habitat 1 mention (yours by bearbait)
Types of Fish to Choose 8
Creating the Food Chain 3
Evaluating&Adjusing Fish Pop 5
Correcive Stocking 6
Fertilization 3
Feeding 3
Should I aerate? 1
Water Chemistry 1
Product Sources 3 indexed articles in PB Mag
Help 2
Questions & Observations 20
See? Discussion of crappie is scattered in many places here. Read all of it, and you will be pretty informed about crappie. Numerous forum members will try to help you with additinal questions.
The "Search" feature is a very helpful tool for finding something or a specific topic on this forum.
I have question, why did you post your initial crappie question under "Creating Habitat' instead of under "Types of fish to choose"?

Sounds like alot for a 1.5 acre lake. Crappie tend to get stunted really quickly in small ponds. Just my opinion. Good luck with your pond.

bearbait,

don't let those big bass guys scare you off. If you want crappie you can have them, you just have to have a bunch of stunted bass, and you need to keep the crappie thinned out. It's all about what you want to do. Check out Shawn Smith's post from a while back.

Bill,
I have wondered why some of the posts are where they are also!

It would be so much easier if we could watch & post under relative headings.
But I've given up & just figure I'll always have to search everywhere when I need info. :rolleyes:

If you want crappie (I don't blame you), then you WILL have to make some sacrifices in your Bass fishery..Crappie will spawn earlier than bass and will over populater such a small pond. But if you want crappie you are going to need alot of big bass. Even better, you need alot of fishing pressure on the crappie.

1 Question do you want bass or do you want panfish? You make the deision. If you want to try both like some of us give the bass a year perferably two before you stock the crappie. leave out anything else such as channel cat that will compete for the food. If you plan on catch and release not a great idea. Your pond sound big enough though barely and you will get different opinions on that one, but crappie are fun but its hard to do both trust me!

I'd like to talk you out of about 2 dozen 1-2 pounders for a fish fry! The guys are right about deciding what you want. If it is BASS don't put the crappie (white perch or sacalait sound so much tastier) that's from south Louisiana! If you want to catch and keep a whole lot of eating fish then you can put sacalait. But if you ever stop harvesting them regularly and heavily, you will pay!!

James,

I am going for the crappie in a 3/4 ac pond. Small pond, I know, but what would you say is a good size crappie for harvest? I never actually ate one. It is because of my friends from Louisiana, who salivate every time I mention sacalait(and they equate eating bass to eating a shoe), that I decided to manage for them. I am more worried about overharvest the first few years. I had enough trouble keeping them from my almost ready (6-7") bluegills last weekend.

ER

The preferred size is 1 lb. and up, but they are delicious at any size. The smaller ones we scale and fry the larger ones can be filleted. Your southern buddies are right about the difference in taste, boot leather is a better comparison! They are a top line competitor with bass and in a pond this size don't let them go long before you check on the size and numbers. I stocked a 7 ac. pond with 120 4-6 inch sacalait one year and the next year the owner harvested about 400 1-1.5 pound perch. Mucho Good Eatin!!!

I pulled/culled out 26 black crappie out of my 6-7 acre pond over this past weekend and the weekend before.

Biggest one was maybe 6-7"

Because we were camping, we did fillet about ten of 'em and fried 'em up.

While they were very tasty, it was hardly worth the effort at that small size. I agree w/ James; a one pounder should be a nice fillet.

Also culled out five black bullheads about 10-12" or so long. My buddy didn't want to fillet them, so they just ended up on the bank.

That sounds like lot of work. I like Jame's idea for the small ones. Just scale them and fry them whole. Some restaurans around here serve catfish that way.