Bill,

Nothing ruins a pond faster than crappie. These eating machines devour almost all newly hatched fish. I have seen a crappie tear through a cluster of new channel cats and take out hundreds in under a minute. I have caught crappie gorged with hundreds of tiny new fish. Bass can be just as bad. Baby fish is their bread and butter in the spring.

You have a large enough pond to warrant a fish sampling survey by an expert (if you can afford it). That is the only true way to determine the extent of your problem. The cheaper method is a guess by looking at how skinny the bass and crappie are. Skinny means lack of food and/or over population.

As for my 2 1/2 acre watergarden, I decided to turn it into a food production (bream and catfish) pond. I never return a bass or crappie. I usually eat them or turn them loose in one or two of my family's ponds where I am allowed to fish. I don't have a lot of bass but the ones that are left are really putting on some size (4 - 5 lbs).

I suggest you remove as many small bass and crappie as you can catch. I suggest you invite some friends out for "catch and kill" fishing but limit their rights to fish to two or three months. The time limit will get them motivated to show up.

Good luck,

Dennis