Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Corrective stocking overrun with crappie

We seem to have the classic case of too small pond and too many stunted crappie. we can catch buckets full and remove them (done so over course of three years), with no apparent impact to their size or numbers. are there any secrets or suggestions for getting rid of crappie, without killing everything else too?

Large bass will eat them. If your water is clear, consider stocking and managing for larger bass. The size of bass depends on the size of the crappie.

At the same time, eradicating everything may not be a bad idea. The time it takes to unpickle the pickle could be saved by renovating and starting over. Right now is the time to renovate, should you choose.

Working to manage for fish to eat crappie may take a few months to several years.

How small are the crappie? Are you catching any other fish there and if so what kind and what size are they?

How big is your pond, and how deep is it?

Ive seen these ponds get reversed and headed in the right direction, but it takes a lot of fishing and possibly adding predators such as LMBs to help you reduce the crappie. If you keep catching bucket fulls, I wouldnt stop fishing it until the bucket got smaller or fish got bigger. One of the other has to happen at some point.

I think you got 2 options.

Fish it alot for the crappie almost obsessively, or your doing nothing. Nothing is not being counted as an option

Kill it and start over. Dont mess with crappie unless you are extremley dedicated to staying on top of them all seasons of the year. They are unpredictable in a lot of cases.

I like to fish ponds with crappie in them in some cases,if they are good spots. I just dont prefer them in my own

I have a pond overun with small blue gills (just bought it and buying larger bass to correct) but Ive found out that in larger ponds, that the crappie are easier to get under control because they will readily take bait and congregate. Adult Bluegills usually do well with Crappie fry, and ofcourse Adult bass will eat them.

Also, if you got a lot of grass and trees- you might want to kill it. If its a farm pond with a lot of water and not much cover and nothing on the bottom, it can probably be fixed if its large enough (approx. 5 acres)

Do what I did. It is expensive but well worth the money. My new 7 acre pond somehow got full of green sunfish and crappie. With my stocking plan blown, I purchased 85 one to three pound bass. They knocked the numbers down dramatically. Not only does this work fast, but you have large fish to catch and enjoy. I bought my fish at Insleys Fish Farm in Connerville. Go see Theop and Donald, they will even let you catch your own fish out of their holding pond. Believe me , catching 85 one to three pound bass will wear you out.