Hey Guys, just moved to a new neighborhood here in Houston and they have this nice 1.8 acre pond. I noticed a residents only catch and release sign and I saw a lot of action in the pond so I walked over and tossed a lure in yesterday evening!

Google map view of the pond


Street view (water looks low must have been from last years drought)


Caught 4-5 of these little guys. Is this some sort of Hybrid Bass? The lines are too spotted I thought.

Welcome to the forum. Those look like White Crappie to me.

Those are stunted crappie.. There's prolly millions of them and catch and release is the worst thing for them..

So what are my options? I am going back this afternoon to fish some more but I would really like to get some Bass in there if there aren't some already. Should I just keep fishing and see what else is in there?

If you have one, I'd make sure the HOA knows what you've found, but they need to be drastically culled. LMB would gorge themselves on crappie that size.

Nice pond.

Basically you can't do nothing because it's not soley your pond..

well that is somewhat obvious, however there are several things I can do Like go to the HOA with plan of action. I just dont know what the best plan of action is.

Spend some time here, get a plan of action put together then go to the HOA. A few weeks or a month won't make any difference with regards to the fish population of the pond.

Those crappies are 7"-8". Big enough to eat... They are not in the worst condition I have ever seen. They don't look extremely stunted to me but surely aren't busting with fat. I would research crappies in ponds here and present that to the HOA. In other words, you'd want to have all crappies removed. As far as other species, there are most likely bass in there. Keep fishing it and begin to gather data on relative weights for all species caught. Then you can put together a slot limit or cull rule to effectively manage the fish. You can also consider what needs to be stocked to assist in changing the fishery. Depending on the interest from other homeowners, this could be easy or hard, solely out of your pocket or shared amongst several people. Or, you can retenone and start over correctly. If it takes a few months to get data together, as esshup said, not a big deal. Take your time and put together the information correctly.

Thanks, I plan on fishing it for a few months so that I can get a better idea on what is in there and just enjoy it. Once I get a better idea of what is and isnt in there and learn how the pond reacts to the changing seasons from summer to fall I will hope to have a game plan going.

It would take a pretty large LMB to eat that size of crappie which as CJ says appears to be 8" long. LMB to eat those would have to be about 20" it is doubtful there are very many of that size of LMB in the pond. It will be a challange getting that pond back in balance. This pond IMO is trending toward the classic stunted crappie pond. It will be a good example and research project for this forum.

Good advice on gathering the facts and learning about pond mgt.

Here is the crappie thread - a lot to review.

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92447#Post92447

Too much information! I am over loaded. I am stopping by the pond this evening and will start documenting what we catch and all.

Well I went fishing with one of my buddys last night. We started using tiny tackle and live night crawlers so I could start documenting the small stuff that I see popping up near the banks. I still see some large fish near the middle breaking the water.

First catch


2 BlueGill (i think) tad smaller than the first fish




and here's the wild card caught on a rattle trap

Tilapia , BG , BG , LMB.

Exactly what ewest said.

So what's your hope(s) for this pond? Prefer the bigger LMB or BG?

Ultimately, once you get a very good idea what is in the pond, you'll have to present your HOA with a selective harvest strategy. To start, some very aggressive culling needs to happen. For a while, nearly everything you catch needs to come out. The condition of those last three fish you posted aren't ideal. I'd guess they were slow growers.

Since it is the neighborhood pond I would just like for it to be a fun fishing pond for everyone. I would like to see some bigger LMB personally.

Its funny most of the people who walk by while I am fishing are surprised there there are fish in the pond so I don't think there is much interest in the community to fish.

I plan on going to the HOA and seeing if they will allow me to manage the pond or if there is any interest in doing anything with the pond. Hopefully I will get a positive reaction from them in which case I would like to work on the pond. They have a very prominent catch and release only sign that just went up a few weeks ago. But I think that is simply what they thought was best and they haven't actually done any research into how to properly manage the pond.

I'd suggest doing more research and go in completely prepared, with a set game plan, before meeting with the HOA. If you hesitate on anything, they'll sense that and shoot you down thinking you don't know what you're doing.

Research culling and relative weights.

I am for sure going to do more research and come up with some data/game plan to present to the HOA. in the mean time I will enjoy the pond for what it is. Cant beat a fishing hole thats less than a mile away! Regardless of how big the fish are