Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Who's eating who?

I have a 5 acre pond. Avg. depth 18ft. up to 24 ft. deep. Rocky in shallow areas, weed bed in deeper areas. 31 years old, surrounded by trees. I have LMB, Bluegill, Crappie, Catfish and one walleye. Over the past several years the size and amount of the LMB and bluegills has diminished. About 6 or 7 years ago I put some crappie in the pond. Some of them are huge now. It is usually catch and release. Now and then I will catch a nice Bass, but not often. Tried to be brief here to get started on increasing the size of the bass again. Thanks in advance for any input. As on another site, don't be concerned about calling me a moron, idiot, cretin, etc. LOL

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,

Thanks Dennis! I'm starting to get the picture on what's going on. Like I said, after the crappie were introduced, the size and numbers of bluegills and bass went down. Maybe it's time to remove some catfish also? The lone walleye that someone dropped in hasn't been seen for a couple of years. LOL Well, time to keep digging! Thanks, Bill

Crappie are always a sensitive subject here, it all depends on your goals. Black crappie will always have a place my ponds, they are not that hard to manage if you pay attention and manage your pond correctly. You must be doing something right to have monster crappie, good job, but you can NOT stay on catch & release if you want larger bass...get Lusk's book, it has everything you need inside. Your predators need to be thinned and by the age of your pond, you probably need to harvest some of each size, including some of the oldest fish.