Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Danger Stocking Bluegill in Existing Lake ?

Snipe is correct, if you add another forage species then that will take predation pressure off of some of the crappie, which will allow more to survive, which will reduce the overall size of the crappie due to less available food per crappie.

It's impossible to recommend a management plan without knowing the bathyspheric profile of the lake, the lake's fertility and what cover/habitat is in the lake.

If I was managing the pond, and the goal was to grow larger bass at the expense of the large crappie, I would hire an electrofishing boat to electrofish the pond and remove all of the under 14"-16" LMB that are shocked up. Then add a bunch of bluegill providing there was habitat to allow them to flourish. You will have to have a large budget for this to be a success. Without a sufficient budget, you are wasting your money.

Now if the majority of the members like catching the larger crappie, and a minority of members want the larger bass, then do nothing. It will be VERY expensive to turn this around to do both, but not impossible.