It's not a matter of "if", but "when" crappie overpopulate a small pond. Here's why. Crappie are the first fish to spawn each spring. They are top line predators, limited only by mouth size. Since they spawn first each year, their babies eat subsequent spawns. Crappie are inconsistent spawners, so predicting their populations is tough. Imagine no spawn one year, then none the next, then 5,000 baby crappie in your pond the next, then 10,000 the next, then no babies the next.
Crappie can't efficiently eat each other, like bass can. So, while bass can control numbers of each other, and other fish, crappie, even with that big hinged mouth, can't offer any type of population control, at all.
So, you are at their mercy.
Don't misunderstand...you will likely have nice crappie fishing for a period of time, until they spawn. Don't count of channel catfish to control excess crappie. They won't. While large catfish will eat crappie, don't expect population control.
