Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Trophy Crappie Recomendations

Robbor -- Since Bruce has done this before I would put a lot of faith in his experiences.

Here is an alternate idea but probably a lot more difficult to implement.
Cecil has purchased some feed trained crappie and for the initial stocking pellet trained crappie may be an option. However expect few if any of the offspring to learn to eat pellets.

Another possibility for raising trophy crappie is to build the pond so it has limited or no shallow areas where crappie can spawn ie a very steep sided pond. Minimal numbers of offspring allows less competition for food and results in food surpluses and fast growth.

Another possibility is to stock hybrid or triploid crappie and hopefully thes fish will be non spawners. This would be an ideal fishery for growing trophy crappie. Whatever number you stock grows fast on the abundant food and does not spawn and you only have to restock what you harvest or dies of old age. Again no offspring results in a food surplus. I am not sure where one can buy hybrid crappie or triploid crappie. I think one or two hatcheries in the US are working on these concepts.

If you stock regular crappie and they spawn then you are going to have to find a way to remove thousands of small crappie each year to keep competition for food to a minimum. Bruce does that with an abundant bass population which is the most practicle way. Seining with long seines could also be used to thin small YOY crappie in certain pond settings.