Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Why not croppie

Greg makes good additional points.

Restocking 3"to 5" crappie with larger LMbass present in combination with reduced numbers of adequate sized forage items for the 3" to 5" crappie can easily result in low survival. I am not sure larger sized crappie handle the removal, storage and transport as well as many of the other types of fish. There are definate degrees of fish hardiness among the different species of fishes. Each hatchery handles the fish differently for different reasons. Newly stocked fingerling or juvenile crappie in a weakened condition or healthy conditon with low food resources of the new water body could be easy pickings for 14" to 16" hungry, established bass. I don't think crappie known for fast swimming ability (escape) and are susceptable or vulnerable to ambush. Numerous things could have contributed to poor survival of any restocked fish.

I am not sure about the supply of larger stocker crappie in the region of MN. I can get 7" - 9" crappie but many hatcheries around the country do not sell the larger adults. We have to keep in mind he is only dealing with a one acre pond and adding 30 to 50 adult crappie at abt $2.50 each per year or two is not a lot of expense, IF one TRULY wants quality crappie. One has to ask - What is the worth of a quality fishery? And how bad do I want it? What am I willing to go through to have it?. A Quality Fishery of Any Kind is a valuable resource. In this situation and to avoid some of the headaches or pitfalls, one can adopt the stocking philosophy of Norm Kopecky where periodically, adult sized fish are restocked when needed to maintain the angling quality desired. This is an easily do-able situation when managing the smaller pond and or if your wallet is fat when managing bigger waters. It comes down to how many adult crappie does MN expect to harvest each year from his 1 acre pond and more importantly what is a realistic harvest for his pond and its conditions?.

MN probably thought this would be an easy, and good stocking idea / prospect, but this discussion has "brought to light" or presented the possible resulting complications and potential problems of his desires or wishes. It probably went way deeper than he expected or wanted. Plus there are probably several ways to make this stocking successful. Properly Tweaking the fishery and a little luck at the proper times will do the most for providing success. Knowing when and how to "tweak" is the very hardest part AND yet the most important part. BUT, When dealing with producing alternative forms of fisheries for the long term, it is not as simple as just Stock'um and Catch'um. Lots of things can go unpredictable with what initially sounded like good idea on paper.