Originally Posted by DrLuke
As the owner of a 2.5 acre pond with BC, my advice to you is to keep EVERY SINGLE ONE you catch. I doubt you can make a dent. Also would advise you to find a relative weight table for crappie and begin weighing and measuring all BC caught. You get some hard data on how well they are doing, growth wise. If many/most are below 100% RW (relative weight) you know there's too many/too little forage. BC/WC are a really tough fish to manage effectively. They spawn like demons (and earlier than all other fish) some years, and then nothing other years. They are also pelagic, meaning they hang out in open water instead of near structure. This means your typical apex predators like LMB don't consume very many. I've read on PB forum that 'potentially' a more pelagic predator like HSB (hybrid striped bass) might make a dent in BC numbers, but I don't have any data on that. I stocked some once, but lost them to a fish kill (story for another time).

Not trying to rain on your parade at all. BC are a great table fish. They're just hard to manage in small impoundments.

Just my 2 cents. I'm sure the expert staff will chime in with better ideas.

I have a 6 acre pond that I stocked in 2013 and next year caught the cr—p out of BCP 5-7” long . It’s been downhill ever since . Have some large LMB (10#) that ate the majority of them I presume. Used to catch all that I wanted anywhere in the pond. Now fishing hard for them I might catch a few9-12” but no numbers no small ones caught at all. Kinda sad cause they are my preferred fish. Have started keeping all bass and transporting all big bass to a neighbors pond ( with his blessing) hoping that they might get a spawn off this year

Last edited by Pat Williamson; 02/26/25 06:36 PM. Reason: Spelling