Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations stunted crappie

Is it possible to impact stunted crappies with the use of electrofishing, suplemental stocking and/or fertilization in the midwest in a bass/bluegill/crappie pond?

What is your bass population (sizes, numbers) like now?

I have a pretty good bass population. Most bass r 2-4 lbs

What size is your pond?

The pond is 4 acres

Ben, welcome to Pond Boss.

The unqualified answers to your questions are basically "yes."

But you should give us a lot more details.

What all fish are in there?

How big are the stunted crappies?

Are you wanting the keep the crappies or get rid of them?

So many questions, but without the answers, it's hard to help.

Ben what you are asking is will mgt of the pond help. Yes it can. You can remove enough crappie to improve the quality of the other fish. What is the best way to do that is a good question. We need more facts to address that question. What do you want out of the pond (goals).

I would like to get the population at the very least back in balance for the panfish. It is my understanding the fish need 1% of their body weight to survive and 4-5% of their body eaten each day in order to grow. My goal is to reduce the population of crappie as much as I can so that the bluegill and the remaining crappie are catchable size with a good body condition. I know it is difficult to have both big bass and panfish but that is my goal.

Very hard to do with just regular mgt. You need lots of LMB to check the crappie down which makes it hard to raise large LMB.

Here is a out of the box thought. Electroshock and take out every crappie you can and leave all LMB. After next spring's spawn (both crappie and LMB) if crappie numbers look to be under control then electroshock again and take out LMB to balance #s and sizes.