I have family outside Reading near Fleetwood, PA. My family owns hunting land in Bedford Co, PA.
Cedar trees or Christmas trees laid on their sides in about 3-4 feet of water near where your LMB and BG spawn will help the fry and fingerlings find some cover. If you have cattails, arrowhead or pickerel weed or other similar emergent vegetation along the shoreline, that will also be good cover for the fry and fingerlings. I really like bulrush, Scirpus validus for this purpose. Lots of thin stems close together, provides great cover for fry and fingerlings.
If you have some big LMB in the pond, they will help thin out the crappie, but I would highly recommend you help them out anyway you can. A small 1.5" curly tail grub on a jig head is deadly on those little 3"-4" crappie this time of year and into the next couple months. Kill everyone you catch! I would also consider seining some out as well, if you have the equipment or can buy it and have an open area of your pond to do so...
HSB will also eat the crappie, but they have much smaller mouths in comparison to LMB of the same size so they are not capable of eating crappie as large as a LMB the same size as them...
