Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations crappie

I bought a 30 year old 7 acre pond in southwest GA a year ago.I was told it had a few crappie in it which was verified by Greg Grimes during a survey. I went fishing for them for the first time last weekend and caught 30 10 inch +. How much of a problem is this and can it be corrected without draining the pond and starting from scratch? Any help would be great. I really enjoy this site you have helped me a great deal.

If largemouth bass are your target, crappie will compete for food and space. Here's the problem with crappie. They are erratic, unpredictable spawners. They may spawn one year, skip two, spawn three, skip one. Tough to predict. They spawn first, before bass, bluegill...any other pond species. So, their babies tend to outcompete, even eat, other babies. Crappie are predator fish, with a mouth too small to compete at the top of the food chain, and too large to simply be a forage fish. Therefore, crappie can overwhelm small waters...less than 20 acres. Be prepared for crappie to eventually overpopulate and stunt at small sizes. You can fight it, but it will take a bit of work and lots of awareness.
One way to correct it is to focus on bass and supplementally feed bluegill...all while harvesting every crappie you catch.

How many crappie should you remove per acre each year in a 15 to 20 acre pond?

I basically remove every crappie I catch in my 6-7 acre pond, and it does make a difference. You'll never get 'em all, but you can put a dent in it.

The best time is early spring, at least in PA. When you find 'em, you can pretty much catch one after the other.

Sunil, that is when I like to bass fish. Winter time is my favorite time.

I understand, but sometimes pond management is like, you know, work!

Sunil,I hear you and have taken out over 1300 since June as the water is down so much I didn't want to stress my bass by catching them.

whoaaa thats a lot of fish catching....is your hand tired?

Well, Sunil is known as an expert......

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=188798#Post188798

There's a lot of ways to catch fish, some more upstanding than others.

Hard to beat a small minnow on a sz. 4 hook.

That's pretty much how I do it.

But when they're stacked up in the early spring, a simple jig will get 'em all too.

Beetle spins work good too.

In my 1 acre pond I remove 300-500 BCP per season. So if I do the math for your 20 acre pond using my management style....I come up with...HOLY COW thats a lot of crappies.

Nice thing, at least in my little mud puddle, the BCP are pretty easy to trap.

Mnfish, how do you trap them?

I use box traps mostly. But last year I bought a modified Fyke net and just started learning how to use it. I think the fyke net will be the way to go once I learn how to use it. There is a thread with pics on the fyke net trap I purchased.

I bought a net like yours but need help setting it up. Do you mind to post your trap? We have 3 or 4 different types but catch no croppie. Your pond is mostly a croppie pond, I belive isn't it? My pond floods sometimes and there are at least 20 species that we have caught out of it. We have too many cats also and have taken out 245 this year so it is a lot of work to try to keep up with them.

My traps are buried under 12" of snow right now and I'm not sure I can get back into my place until spring. I will know tomorrow. I was snowed on pretty good last week.

In my limited experience with BCP trapping, the time of year makes a big difference. I have had the best luck in the spring of the year when the water temps are 50F-60F. My body of water is so small compared to what you are dealing with. Hopefully one of the experts will chime in here. I have zero experience with trapping such a big body of water.

And yes my ponds are being managed for BCP.

Not a problem, stay inside, you live in a very beautiful state. Some years we get a big snow in December but I don't miss it.

Kenc,
Your ponds sound pretty cool to me. Actually I would think of them as small lakes. I was sitting at my daughters concert earlier and my mind starting wandering towards fish ponds.

I was wondering what kind of crappies do you have? Have you done any relative weights on any? If so, what were they. Whats the biggest one caught?

Both black and whites hang together in south as we are pretty cool. I usually catch big ones in winter up to 16 1/4 in. Best year caught 18 15 in. they was between 2-3 lbs. Haven't been able to fish last 2 winters due to surgery/chemno but am good to go now. The WR of 80% is good but are mostly 8 to 10 in. long so I will be glad when they settle down to their winter habits to see if there are still nice ones around. The last flood put some really yellow croppie that I had never seen before. I have a picture of one but can't post pictures. Flood also put fliers in this pond and we have caught 7 of these this year. Do you have them up there? Pm me your email and I will get one of my sons to send you some pictures.

kenc, if your picture is digital, you can send it to me via email and I'll get it posted.

What is digital?

Kenc,

Nice to read your medical challenges are being conquered!

I have no idea what a "flier" fish is. Maybe we have them but call them by a different name up here in the north. Please describe them.

I would love to see some pics of those fish especially a 16.25" crappie!!!! I would also bet there are others here that would like to see them as well. Sounds like you have a really great setup

kenc, do you have a computer file of the picture or is it a physical photo (like a print)?