Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Bluegill Have Vanished

Hello, I am new to the forum and glad to see a forum where pond nuts like myself can help each other with issues we may be facing with our ponds. I live in southern Louisiana and experiance some pretty warm summer months. I have a 2 year old, 1 acre pond with an average depth of 6ft. The pond is constantly areriated by a bubbler and also set up with a submersable pump that is hooked to a timer and sprays through a fire hose nozzle. Pretty much a cool homemade airation system. It was initally stocked with 500 BG and 500 CC the first year and recently this past December i stocked 100 black crappie fingerlings. The pond is also on a timed feeder that is run year around. My issue is that up until this summer we could usually go anywhere around the bank but esspically next to the feeder and catch bluegill. This past spring we were really starting to see some nice size in them, just over hand size. The CC have also done very well and range from 2 to 4 pounds. Last summer we had not problem catching BG but since summer has hit this year we have not caught any and have not seen the first black crappie. The pond is very healthy and i usually do not let it get below a foot low before i turn the well on with the drought we have been having. I can tell when they feed that a few BG are hitting but it seems like the CC have taken over the area. We have tried every bait, live and plastic known to man and they will still not bite. My question is if anybody elso has had this problem before and if anyone thinks that maybe with the hot months that all my BG are sticking to the bottom. I am pretty sure that they have not died off since i have not witnessed any floating and would not think that the fingling crappie could swallow a hand sized BG. lol Any explanation to this issue would be greatly appricated because i am out of ideas. Thanks

I don't believe I've ever seen a case where BG won't come to a feeder. What feed are you using?

The crappie will probably turn out to be a huge problem.

You better get some predators in that pond asap.. You're on the way to a stunted mess.. Bluegill will be there til the bitter end, catfish usually take over the feeding area.. With crappies and bluegills and no predators you could have problems already crappie are usually not good in ponds..

Thanks for the comments guys. I understand that there is a chance for some issues with the crappie but for some reason in my area of the world specifically black crappie have done pretty well in farm ponds. From most of the reports i read from LSU they do not multiply as visiously as the white crappie and can ussually be managed. They also informed me that the larger catfish should keep the crappie fry crop eaten down through the summer also. Crappie in the very warm water we have tend to be just as aggressive as bass on fry and small bluegill. By no means am I an expert but figured i would give it a try since I much rather fry up a crappie than a bass. Anyway at this point it does not seem like anything other than the CC are taking over. Mr Dave I cannot recall the name of the feed but it is a floating catfish feed that I get at my local feedstore. I want to say it is a Purina brand.

Here archive on Crappie.

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92447#Post92447