Originally posted by burgermeister:
Diversified forage base should be the key. Shiners, minnows, shad, all will be needed. Crappie eat a lot to gain weight. All these forage have different spawning habits, and WILL find a place to spawn. A some larger LMB will help, possibly 1 sex. Maybe a couple flatheads. Crappie will find the shad in a small pond before going hungry.
I second that Burg. The great crappie ponds I have fished had plentiful and diverse forage. Plenty of shallows with weeds, minnows, shiners, and insects produce big crappie in good numbers.
To control the population, I intend to set a strict "inverse" size limit on my bass. Any bass over ~3 pounds will be released. That alone should help quite a bit. It will also frustrate my guests, but that's life.
Edit: I consider grass shrimp to be the holy grail of crappie forage. My pond will be a grass shrimp and minnow factory first, and a BG/RES/Crappie/LMB pond second.
