I think that crappie have to either be put in a small enough pond to manually control the population or in a large lake with enough predators where they will not naturally overpopulate. My pond is living proof that they can be done in a small pond. My pond is only about 3/4 acre, so half the size of yours. But by keeping on them, meaning removing some crappies, I have been able to grow them quite large along with HBG and bass. I currently have crappies up to 15 inches. I only remove one or two hundred per year and it has so far kepth them in check. I remove them both by fishing and by trapping. They are easy to trap. Having said that, if I had known when I stocked my pond that they can be a problem I may not have put them in. But by being proactive and controlling the population I have made it work. I think the geography of a small pond has everything to do with whether you will be able to control them. My pond is accessible almost all the way around and it has a channel from one large part to another. This makes it easy for me to fish and/or place a trap anywhere I find large concentrations of crappie. While fishing, I note areas that are heavy with small crappie then that's where I put the trap. When I stop catching many small crappie each day I move on. Of course my channel is the most productive spot. I also put in two docks, they seem to attract the smaller crappie so I can usually trap them right beside the docks easily. I only have to get the trap out and actively work at it about twice a year for 3 or 4 days at a time. The crappie I take out are usually 3 to 5 inches long. So that means I'm not catching the smallest ones. The fact that only one or two hundred make it to that size tells me that the rest are probably adding to my forage base as food for the larger crappie, bass, and HBG. So I'm not sure if this hasn't been a really good idea after all. Whether you can control the population will also depend on how much spawning area you have. I made my pond with as steep of sides as I could just to limit spawning area. I figured in such a small pond I can't have anything spawning real heavy. That's also why I went with HBG versus regular. I'm not an expert on stocking but this is my current experience. Others on the forum can help you more.
Last edited by bz; 01/28/10 12:35 AM.
