Been awhile since I was on here, but I enjoy reading. The question I pose is very straight forward: Will introducing 2-3 flathead catfish have an positive effect in controlling crappie population in a 3 acre lake? I have a thriving bass and blue gill population along with some very large 6-8 lb bass at the top end. I have owned the 15 yr. old pond for 3 yrs. and at first, I caught some very nice 11-15 inch crappie in good numbers. Now, it seems that all I catch is 2-5 inch and an occasional 6-9. A friend just told me that flathead prefer to eat crappie and would be voracious in consuming the smaller ones. Does anyone care to offer an opinion?
Sounds like you already "controlled" them and have a good pond in hand. I doubt whether you will eliminate them, since they reproduce twice a year. Everything in pond management has tradeoffs. If you introduce a new species, they may affect your other pop. in negative ways. Frankly, I never quite understood why pond mgrs. would eliminate them, since they taste better than most other fish with the exception of trout. I guess it's because of the symbiotic relationship between BG and LMB. I have a seven acre balanced pond with LMB and large black crappie dominating. I won't "mess with the carburetor."
