He will have to use northern strain LMB, Florida strain won't do well where he's at.

The big cats aren't hurting, they are helping by eating the smaller crappies. The crappies are probably eating a lot of the baby cats if they do pull off a successful spawn. BUT, if you do catch a cat, don't put it back, keep it out. It will only hurt you in the upcoming years.

So, without pushing the reset button, I would stock 50-60 12" LMB and let them eat their hearts out. At the same time, I would fish every spare minute for the crappie and toss 'em out for coon food.

Keep tabs on the relative weight of the LMB that you stock. Before stocking, get a good idea of what that number is. Then as you catch them as you are catching crappie, weigh and measure them. With that much forage in there, I would expect them to gain length and weight fast. Once that growth starts slowing down, you should see a large reduction in the number of crappies. Then and only then would I introduce BG and RES. Unfortunately, they will have to be advanced sizes.

BUT, if you stock 4"-5" BG/RES now, and they reproduce, that will take pressure off the crappies as the LMB will feed on them too.

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3/4 to 1 1/4 ac pond LMB, SMB, PS, BG, RES, CC, YP, Bardello BG, (RBT & Blue Tilapia - seasonal).