Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Can a LMB heavy 1acre small pond control crappie

We use to have crappie in one of our farm ponds in the early 80's but they dissappeared.. The crappie fishing was pretty good for a few years..

It was stocked with LMB, Bluegill and Channel Cats haphazardly by my late father in the 70's... Later it was stocked with crappie as well.. No feeding to speak of and it was a very good productive fishing pond..

Anyway I know most won't stock crappie in smaller ponds because of over crowding and stunting nad the fact they spawn very early...

I was wondering if a truely bass heavy pond could keep them under control... Thinking about trying it in one of my ponds but this time there is and has been a feeder on that pond..

Do crappie out reproduce bluegill..?

The pond is about 8/10th of an acre and average depth of about 5.5 feet deep... No deep holes to speak of.. 5 gpm natural artesian well keeps it pretty full even in this horrible drought.. The 68 degree spring always keeps the bottom fairly cool even in the hottest weather.. I've never had a turnover issue either..

Location Northern edge of SE Texas..

Any thoughts would be appreciated..

It's been my experience in VA that crappies often struggle to successfully reproduce in ponds less than 2 acres. I'm not saying this is absolute, but they often don't or they may only pull off one successful spawn every 4 or 5 years. This can lead to the crappies dying out in a pond is several bad spawn years occur in a row. I liked it as I could control crappies as a simple put and take species. There is no guarantee with this though...

There's been a good bit of research done and in my experience stunted bass often will control crappies fairly well and produce good numbers of eating size 9-12 inch crappies. This certainly isn't always the case so there is a big risk you take. There has also been research showing HSB may also help control crappies. Young crappies do compete directly with BG. A quality pellet feeding program can mitigate that some though. Do a forum search for crappies, there is a plethora of info on here about them...

I don't think anything can really out spawn bluegill. However, in a bass heavy pond, nothing gets a chance to mature enough to feed larger bass.

I don't know of anyone who has tried adding crappie to a bass heavy pond but it might just work. I figure you would have to stock larger ones to avoid immediate predation.

HSB will directly compete with BG for feed aswell CJBS2003 and "I" really don't consider the HSB as much of a predator on a fed pond, my opinion though.. I think if you had a bass heavy pond with good bedding area for crappies you could have a decent crappie pond, with no structure and good management it's possible I think..

The one nice thing about feed is you can always add more if you're experiencing competition among different fish species for it. I do agree HSB are poor predators when they are pellet fed. Not much need for them to chase down food live food when they can find it just floating on the surface. Perhaps it would be prudent in a pond where quality crappie where the goal to not pellet feed to make your HSB hungry... I do agree the limiting of cover is extremely important is maximizing LMB predation of crappies and I think even more important in maximizing HSB predation on crappies. It would seem to me you would want to limit the amount of spawning area for crappies to keep their reproductive potential to a minimum.

Crappie don't outproduce bluegill, they outcompete them. Both of those species are predator fish, limited by mouth size. Since crappie have a larger mouth, they can eat larger prey. My experience with crappie reproduction is that it isn't predictable. We never know if they'll spawn each year. But, when they DO spawn, they are first in warmwater ponds. Their babies can easily outcompete baby bluegills...heck, they can eat baby bluegills. The biggest problem with crappie in small ponds is the fact they overeat the food chain at a critical link in the chain. With mouths smaller than bass, crappie eat lots of small meals. Those small meals never get the chance to become larger meals, which means a significant part of a developing food chain disappears before it gets the chance to become significant for intermediate and larger fish.
Will overcrowded bass control crappie? I expect they would, for a while. The dynamics of overcrowded bass dictates a fight for food. So, not only will overcrowded bass help control crappie, they'll eat them, too. Plus, overcrowded bass eat similar food items that larger crappie eat. So, they compete. That's another reason to expect crappie to stunt. It ain't easy to compete with big numbers of skinny bass.

My 0.7 acre pond is very bass heavy, and it had crappie in it when we bought the place. The bass seem to keep them in check. We've gone entire seasons without catching any crappie. Actually, I haven't caught one in at least the last 14 months. When we do catch crappie, they are usually 12-14 inches, but very skinny. I'd prefer that they were not in my pond, but . . .

Well it sounds like they may be on their way out catmandoo

Thanks for all the responses... Lot's to think about..

I have a bluegill pond that also produces nice bass.. And plan to keep it that way..

I think I will give crappie a try in my other pond...

have you researched the black vs white crappie issue?? my experience is that black crappie are a lot more successfull at reproducing and dont get as big, and whtie crappie (in my area) seem to have trouble populating lakes, but are beautiful thick fish when you do snag one.

If you want info on crappie suggest you read the archive thread on Crappie . It has tons of data on the subject.

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