PFF,
Give it a try...experiments are really a great way to learn and to help others learn. I've done several over the years and have two ponds tied up with different ongoing experiments now. I'd sure like to hear the results.
Theo,
Good thoughts. However, I'm not sure how the pond manager would know in a timely manner what the results were of a given seasons crappie spawn. Seems like without shocking/seining there would be a time delay in information availability....like a growing season before you knew what actions need to be taken. Shocking/seining aren't tools in my bag of tricks, but maybe there is another way?
Yes, I believe that a HSB would resume feeding on pellets with a year time lapse. They are really the most pellet adapted fish I have dealt with...of course no cats in my pond.
More importantly, the problem I see is that one will still fail to achieve the objectives of large plentiful crappie. My reasoning: if HSB are accoustomed to crappie, they will get after them as a first choice and in those down years for crappie spawn, with HSB stocked for the max, they would eliminate virtually every crappie offspring and result in failure to achieve objectives. Even with pellets, the HSB would also get first choice of other forage fish that a crappie might need to achieve desired weight gains. The down years could be consecutive and many. The whole point of the technique was to raise 1 to 3 pound crappie, not healthy HSB. It still looks like a crap(pie) shoot to me. Comments?
