That's my understanding too Pat.

I would think most anything that is appropriately sized is one the menu throughout their life. So this would include fish fry for even the smaller BCP. But fish fry are not very abundant relative to other organisms they eat so smaller BCP eat invertebrates primarily. By the time BCP reach 8" in length, it takes a fish or large invertebrate to meet the definition of appropriately sized ... so above this size we see fish dominating their gut contents.

BCP are fish that like to school. Because of this they are concentrated and it can be difficult to find them. They are not always in brush ... same goes for WCP. It is not uncommon to find crappie cruising open water or suspended. My experience with crappie is that they seem to always be ready to eat if you can find them. In Summer and Fall months I would troll for them. This worked to find where they were and I would try to circle through them. My favorite lure for them is a small sassy shad during this time. During the winter and pre-spawn I liked to fish for them in brush (off my dock). I also like to fish around the drain tower (used to source water to water treatment plant) right through January and February. Winter caught fish are the best IHMO to eat. Brush attracts a school of BCP for rest and morsels. But they are so concentrated in a school ... I think they get most of the sustenance cruising around ... many times in open water. So open water hold more crappie ... even adult crappie ... than we realize. Crappie will use these open spaces to feed on forage that prefer the same habitat (stuff like TFS, RSH, GSH, and small GSHD).

I think the key to good crappie fishing is eliminating their competition. Primarily most lepomis but especially BG should NOT be present. They do not mix well with LMB-BG combination unless they are bonus fish that is large and is uncommon in the catch. My thoughts on BCP are that they should be paired with a robust large gape predator that is large in size and combine to make about 1/5 to 1/4 the standing weight. Predators that are a minimum of 18" in length that are capable of keeping up with the 3" to 6" crappie. So if we imagine a standing weight of 120 lbs of BCP ... we might also imagine a standing weight of 30 lbs of large predators like Female Only LMB, or even single sex FH. The key I think is a predator base that is not very competitive with small prey and small prey that won't compete heavily with the BCP for food or even for predation. Really good fishing requires, I think, no BG, large non-reproducing predators, lots of small forage like PK shrimp, GAMs, possibly crayfish, RSH or equivalent member of the satinfin shiner family. Ladder stocking of the predator would probably be required ... something consistent with the life span or possibly growth. Predators adapt to limited supplies of food and grow slowly ... the key is the size of the predators and their standing weight. The predators must be large enough to consume BCP in their second year (>4") and not so many that they eat too many of them.