Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations black crappie

I have a 1 acre pond and have read that black crappie can be stocked in an impound of this size. I want black crappie to be the main fish in my pond. Will they eat coppernose bluegill? What fish will keep the crappie numbers in check?
Thanks!

Sharks?

Seriously though, I have been consulting some experts and am planning a BCP pond and using HSB.
May want to do a search...this subject has been discussed quite alot.
(I have been consulting Todd Overton of late. He's active here and sells excellent fish).

I believe that the search will reveal no difference in fecundity of black and white crappie. It's usually considered only a matter of time before they overspawn. The result will be a water hole full of stunted fish. Yep, they will do a number on CNBG.

As far as I know, there hasn't been a really effective predator identified that can keep up with their numbers.

It's do-able, but be ready for a lot of management. Your pond will need to be heavy in large and medium sized predators, and you will need to fish a lot. I guess there are worse things than catching and eating a lot of crappie.

....About four years ago,before I found this website, I put 100 black Crappie in my pond..The Fish "Salesman" said BC were ok...I had a pretty heathy population of LMB...It has been four years and I have not caught any BC..Also My LMB seemed to have dissapeared, so I added about 100 lmb two years ago...I have only caught one or two LMB since then...I have a few CC and plenty of forage..I added 20lbs of FHM last year and 5lbs this year, also 20lbs of Talapia each year..the pond is 1 1/2 acre.....I dont see any FHM anymore and it was in April when I added the 5lbs.

Sgt911 have you tried doing a seine survey to see what is going on. Do a history of the pond including what you stocked , when and size of stockers, water quality, other things you have noticed and post that . It should be an interesting situation.

htrangler here is the link to the threads on crappie.

http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=5;t=000461

Naw, the one day a week I actually get up to my property is spent fixing equipment and then breaking it again..I just figured I should at least be catching a lot of small fish.

Sarge, I can really relate to that. However, I am catching some small fish.

Have you ever caught anyone fishing?

sounds to me like someone has been cleaning out your pond. I take it you haven't noticed dead fish either? Could it be that your pond turned over and killed alot of your fish? I have heard of that happening, but most stories I hear, guys lose their big fish but the smaller fish seem to survive. I don't know that much about it.

I was wondering about an all crappie pond. It seems like it would be a good thing to be able to harvest so many fish. Maybe you would have to keep a little smaller ones than normal to keep up but mmmm'mmm they taste good. I would actually like to try it in a small pond one day and harvest the cr#p out of some good tasting crappie.

Not to keep hijacking this thread, but I did suspect poaching the first year I owned the place. The only dead fish I have ever seen were Talapia in winter.

has anyone tried BC in a very small pond (1/10th of an acre) i know that people say not 2 but one of my buddies fishes this small duck hunting pond thats about 1/10 acre. we only see one school of about 10 lmb that are anywhere from 1-5lbs the crappie are numerious but not over populating avg size is about 8 inches but a lot of 12" fish are in there. we have only ever caught lmb and crappie nothing else. it isnt managed that we know of its on some duck hunting place so they dont fish that pond much. idk just thought it was kinda an oddity. the pond is maybe 8ft deep avg depth 5 feet not a lot of weeds but a lg area of cattails surround it

I would absolutely want to try black crappie in a 1/10 acre pond someday, but I'd have one requirement. I'd want to be able to seine it.

I could anticipate at least once every couple of years to get rid of all but the best fish. If you can't seine you'll likely need to find other ways to keep the numbers in check. Maybe by eliminating cover, so they can't hide. Or maybe by angling the heck out of them.

I'd make darn sure that some kind of predator, be it human or fish, has really good access to the baby crappie.

Crappie can be a lot of hard work; or maybe just a real pain in the butt. Most Biologists say to avoid them in a pond of less than 25 acres.

In any pond, the predator/prey relationship has to be matched and monitored. Even if we are the predator via seine or intensive fishing. In a 1 acre or smaller pond, it is double tough.

I have somewhat the same situation. I have a small forage pond, less than 1/4 acre, with RES, BG and CNBG. It dried up, refilled, and I got some RES and CNBG from Lusk. I had already tossed in some small BG. It is too deep to seine so I'm going to trap and relocate a bunch this weekend. It is wall to wall fish with zillions under 2 inches. They're gonna all die if I don't give it my attention. Been there/done that. If I put in some small bass, they will also spawn and I then have another problem.

Dang, I wish I could still throw a cast net.