Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations crappie issues

I have failed to mention in all my other questions on how to get a good pond, that I have a fair amount of good sized crappie. If I am wanting to ultimately raise a good mix of bass and bluegill, do I want to aggressively fish out the crappie in the spring and fall? Darn, I thought all I needed to do was get the big cats out of the lake and my problems would be over, then since there are no preditors in significant numbers, I now have a heavy gsf population...now the crappies! any advice will be helpful.

Yes, jimmyt. You want to get out as many crappie as you can if you want to be in control of having a good mix of healthy bass & bluegill.

Crappie spawns are unpredictable and crappie can quickly reach a size where they are too large to be controlled by existing bass populations. The other downfall is that the crappie basicially eat the same thing that your bass do, so they compete with the bass for food to eat.

What he said.

From the archives.

Crappie In Ponds - PB Forum View

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92447#Post92447.

Nobody wants crappie issues. That's for sure.

JimmyT

You may want to try stocking Hybrid Black Crappie. The offspring are slower growing and are supposed to be easily controlled by bass and bluegill. Since they are a cross between white and black crappie, they will spawn with either species. The studies that are available shows the Hybrids were unable to maintain a population after just a few years and needed to be re-stocked.

If you want and can't find any locally this Fall, contact me.

Thanks for the info, guys, I will begin the removal asap! jimmyt

Jimmyt I just finished phase two of crappie eradication in my pond. Over two weeks in early spring I removed close to 45 crappie, the majority were 6" fish and two nice 14"+ slabs and one 12" fish.

I didn't catch another one until last week. The grass carp put a hurting on the pondweed fields in the pond and I guess exposed the remaining crappie hiding spots. I removed another 15 last week. It takes patience and the right lures.

I recommend some small jig heads in the 1/16 to 1/32 ounce range with a color assortment of 1.5" tubes. These work really nicely jigged slowly through likely crappie holding areas: basically let the bait hit the bottom, add a quick jerk up and let it sink down...repeat and vary the tip action, you'll nail them. If the fish seem aggressive bounce the bait off the bottom during a well paced retrieve, basically sweeping the bottom 1' of water. Similar to fishing a plastic crawfish bait.

I caught all the 6" fish with the tactics above. I caught the larger ones while bass fishing. One on a 5" watermelon Senko, another on a Daredevil spoon and one on a chartreuse curly tail grub. The larger ones are competing with your bass guarenteed!

I hope this helps. It took me awhile to target the fish, but with a little work you can eliminate a lot of fish quickly once you identify what they like and where they hang out.