There always a few folks who have to learn by doing. So stock your crappie and forage fish in your 1 to 4 acres of water. For a little back ground info: for both white & black crappie, and for each fish to grow large, each one needs to eat about 8 to 10 lbs of minnows over a 3 to 4 yr period to gain one pound of weight (1 lb=12"-13" and 15"=2 lber). So, keep proper sized forage avaiable and enough of it should be present to keep all the crappies in the pond growing. Also keep a fairly good estimate of crappie numbers present; and thin their numbers when they are common to abaundant. The hard part will be to keep ample amounts of minnow forage available for the total number of fish eaters and you'll have a great crappie "fishing hole". Sounds easy enough. Come back in several years (abt 6 yrs) and let us know what you have learned and how it is working.
For some more helpful background information about how to raise crappie in ponds see
http://www.conservation.state.mo.us/fish/aquaguides/ Click on the box on left side titled "Managing Crappie in Small Impoundments".
