Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Crappie

big_pond - you always ask the hard questions; it shows you are thinking.

White crappie are more tolerant of turbid water than black crappie. One reference I have, says that white crappie do not become abundant in clear water when in competition with bgill, blk crappie and LMB. But I am sure someone has seen stunted crappie in a clear water small lake. What defines clear water?

Minimum size of a large lake that will produce a quality crappie fishery. Hummm. I cannot give you a definate answer to your question of how big a lake needs to be for it to most likely produce lots of large crappie. There are too many variables about individual features of lake ecology to consider. In general, I think the larger the water body the more likely it can result in a good crappie fishery for the same reasons I mentioned above. I think you can do a search of Bob Lusks past posts about crappie or scan his and other experienced fish guys comments in Pond Boss magazine and find that the general consenses is that crappie generally do best in water that is at least 6 to 10 acres in size. One source that I have says at least 3 acers and never in turbid water. Pond managemant books from KY and MO say that crappie are most likely to succeed in lake of 100 ac or more. Key here and most importantly is that larger waters or lakes result in many more varieties of siable natural habitats / niches for ample production of a greater variety of different types of small fishes. Keep in mind that the presence of small fishes is the backbone for a continual , repeat continual supply of small fishes to keep the crappie continually feeding and growing throughout each growing season. Several scientific references indicate that adult crappie are well adapted at zooplankton feeding at certain times of the year. The diet of crappie over 8"-9" was found to be 50% composed of large zooplankton items in Feburary. Night feeding on zooplankton has been reported; lots of insects are reportedly eaten in summer. Crappie probably eat whatever is most abundant where they are living.

Theoretically you can grow big crappie in small waters, all you have to do is keep an abundance of minnows available to however many crappie you have in that water. Big job!, especially you have other predators feeding on the same forage fish and if you have a population of crappie and other predators that are each yr reproducing. All of a sudden you can have many more mouths to feed and a shortage of forage fish. That is when and how most ponds get into trouble (i.e.food shortages). Once a few crappie spawn the number of minnows required to feed them increases proportionally. I think crappie are required to eat about a similar amount of forage fish/organisms to gain weight as other predators. I doubt they are much more efficient protein converters as other fish eaters.

Dave Willis may be able to help us with some of this stuff.

Even though crappie are considered to have "hinged" mouths and the mouth is considered fairly large for a fish of its relative size, I THINK crappie are fairly selective in the size of forage fish that they typically prey on. I have no proof of this and have never read research on the prey size selectivity of crappie. Just my educated guess and from observations. Most "prey size" research has been done with other predators such as: pike, walleye, bass, perch etc. Dr Willis may know of some research on this topic. But if crappie select or prefer prey fish in certain sizes, then often some of the consumable species of forage fish (bgill, y.perch, bass, shad) may fairly quickly grow out of this favorable size category and become unacceptable or uncatchable to crappie. The crappie has to catch it, to eat it. If no other species of forage fish is present then certain size groups of crappie go for sometimes lengthy periods with little or minimal food. This would then lead to slow growth and future problems. A slow growing group of crappie from one year's hatch start to stunt and if there is another crappie hatch the next year and these fish grow normally using zooplankton, insects and fish fry it does not take long for two year classes of crappie to develop that are about the same size. Overabundant numbers in one similar size category results; stunting then becomes more pronounced. This also happens with other fishes as well not just crappie.

Controlling overpopulation is key to success in any fishery. Just because a lake is the correct size to grow "good" crappie, if the proper population controls (mortality) and adequate food do not occur, stunting will occur. A fish will grow as long as it lives, as long as it has food to an excess.