Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Crappie

Hey guys been a while since I posted have a? My pond is 14 years old bass bluegill catfish pond is doing well grandkids ask me about putting crappie in told them didn’t no if I could what say you experts if so what size Thanks for any help

I'm not an expert but I wouldn't put them in a small pond. My pond is about 2/3 of an acre and they were already in there when we bought the place. I've caught one or two nice ones but the rest have been runts.

I'd use hybrid crappie if available if you feel you must stock crappie. Less reproduction.
If I was doing it myself, I've helped sort 1.0yr black crappie to stock males only which is great but needs to be done every other year.
You have some control in this manner. Yes, it's labor intensive but worth the alternative result.

How big is your pond and what are the numbers and sizes of your different fish species? Crappie reproduce extremely prolifically and are prone to multiplying until they overconsume a pond's resource base and their growth is stunted. They also reproduce very early in a year and can grow large enough to eat that year's generation of other fish species before they are even born.

The biggest challenge to keeping crappie is maintaining enough predators to keep the crappie population from overshooting its own food supply. Very high numbers of largemouth can help. Hybrid striped bass are often recommended for controlling crappie, although you'd have to restock them once in a while they can't sustain a breeding population on their own. Flathead catfish can reduce stunting in panfish but are too large and aggressive for the vast majority of private bodies of water.