Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Cappie Killing?

A friend of mine in the Richmond VA area has a ten acre 20 year old pond on his farm. Lots of small 10-12 inch large mouths, 7-inch sunfish and 10-inch White Crappie. He caught one six-pound LMB, but the next biggest fish has been 3 pounds. Going over records the average LMB has been 10 to 12 inch range. The Crappie are averaging 10 inches with a few near 2 pounds. The sunfish are a mix of red ears and bluegills from 6 to 7 inches being the norm. Records have been kept for about a year and a half fishing two to three times a week.

The question is how many crappie need to be culled to start allowing the bass to grow. It is not hard to take 20 to 30 Crappie in one aferternoon covering only a fifth of the shoreline. Lots of people have voulteed to help so we were thinking all crappie must be kept as well as setting a slot limit for the LMB. What would you guys recommend?

John Boat, before I forget to ask, how are your musky doing?

Anyway, if your friends enjoy catching crappie, this may be too extreme, but the most common recommendation for crappie in a pond is to remove every one that you catch as you have already stated. With 10 acres (which I believe is a good size), you could remove every crappie you catch and still have some big crappie in there. I think it's also said that crappie affect LMB growth by competing for the same food that LMB would eat.

You are most likely right about the LMB being overpopulated, and the need to start a LMB culling program.

Once your friend's LMB get bigger, I believe they will also help control the crappie population.

These are just my opinions.

The musky are feeding, as are the bowfins. I have been fly fishing for the carp quite a bit and have seen them exploding on the smaller carp several times. There is normally a disruption on the water near a weed bed followed by all the other fish in the area high tailing it out of there.

That must be REALLY neat to watch!