Mark, don't get me wrong, lots of people have Black Crappie in smaller waters like yours. Most just never realize how intensively the management can be with them. Your pond is still fairly young and growing.

Black Crappie are often called boom or bust spawners...conditions for them to recruit young must be ideal, and when those conditions happen, there will be literraly millions of BC will survive and completely overwhelm a pond. It isn't a matter of if it will happen, but when it will happen.

As for the tilapia doing well in your area...all I can say is many have put pen to paper, figured out the costs and I orders for several thousand pounds in northern Ohio...In Fact, it is my most heavily stocked state that I deliver to...I guess how well they do in your area is a purely relative and subjective proposition.

Either way, it was still just one of the many options you could use to reach your goals for your pond. Ultimately, it is still your pond to manage in any way you choose.

50 pounds of FH at an average of $9/lb is $450 and all get eaten before any noticable spawn...At the price Inspired By Nature charges for Blue Tilapia That would be 15 pounds of Tilapia at $30/lb. The tilapia would VERY conservatively produce over 500 pounds of forage in the Dayto area growing season. To my way of thinking, Tilapia is 1/10th the cost of an equivelant amount of Fatheads.

Last edited by Rainman; 03/06/11 03:26 PM.