I pulled and ate 20 8-9" crappie out of the pond over last couple days. About 60% were full of eggs so I'm assuming they haven't spawned yet. My plan is to remove all the crappie I catch.
Caught some more bass in the 9"-11" range - hard fighters for their size. I'm thinking they might be males getting spawning sites ready as many didn't seem to swallow the bait as much as lip it a bit (lots of strikes without hooking) Haven't caught any decent size bass yet so I'm wondering if the females haven't come in to spawn yet.
Using my garmin depthfinder I can see the pond is mostly 9'-14' deep with a shallow end that is about 5' deep - was catching mosty bluegills in the shallow area. Caught bluegills in other shallower areas also. They seem pretty heathly size but not huge - 6" to 7" long (all thrown back). I was catching crappie in edges of pond about 5' near deeper water with fish staying near lily pads &vegetation. Most of the deeper/dam side of pond drops quickly into deep water about 6-8' from shore.
At times I saw what appeared to be fish (on garmin) in deeper parts of pond suspended around 5' - 6' down. Couldn't get a feel for how big they were as I couldn't get any to strike on any of the lures I tried. I'm thinking they were either crappie or female bass.
I ended up adding about 400 small coppernose bluegill/shellcraker (hatchery truck had them mixed) to big pond and 100 of same to my smaller pond. I imagine most will be eaten but hoping a few will survive to improve pond stock. I added them in a very shallow area where they wouldn't immediatly be attacked by bass/crappie.
To the suggestion I add Tilapia - I don't belive it is legal to do so in Virgina without a permit.
Last edited by nvcdl; 04/27/19 04:26 PM.
