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.
