curious if theres a lake already with a decent amount of BG,CC and LMB around 9 acres or so if you were to add maybe 30 white crappie around 6 inches or so do you think they would take over? or do you think they would be able to thrive wlel and establish a decent population im just curious how powerful crappie really could b

That depends(standard answer) on size of LMB & CC. The only real way to find out a lot of these questions is just do it. I was told if it becomes a problem introduce a couple Tiger Muskie. We had a 30 acre pond and had black and white crappie and the bass and channel cats and hungry fishermen seemed to keep everything under control.

Crappie are generally unsuitable in impoundments less than 25 to 30 acres. They spawn earlier than bassor bluegills plus have the same hinged jaw of a bass. The result is that when the bass and bluegills spawn/hatch hungry young crappies are there waiting on them.

I have them in a 5 ac pond and so far no problem.... yet ...... guess it really does just depends

We have a 10 A. rock quarry that has LMB UP TO 6 & 7 LBS., CC up to 30 in. and 12 to 15 lb., BG that are numerous and healthy, and BCP. We very seldom catch one that is smaller than 12 in. We are considering adding some 10 in. BCP this spring to see if we can have a better survival of young. We have added a lot of structure but as yet no increase. Everything we catch does seem very healthy. The main continuous problem is LMB numbers. With help we do take a lot out each year. I do keep reading about the negatives of BCP it has not been a problem. My wife and I do love to catch the crappies. They are as pretty as it gets. I would say don't be afraid to go for it. We would like to catch more. The LMB is most likely the key.

can you catch them like crazy or is it hard to find them

Matt if I was to add some I would add black crappie due to their diverse feeding habits

i just wana make it a good crappie pond so i can go out and catch 15 crappie on days so i guess ill take my cat net to my local rez toss out cause can catch 50 easily at a time at the spillway and keep stocking the pond to be sure i think ill put about 150 and a few baby cats if i catch some since the lake hasnt been stocked in 20 years or longer the cat populations low prob has 50 cats in the whole lake now


the lakes full of bluegill due to not having any real predators its very hard to catch a bass i fished for 1 year solely with plastic worms and caught only 5 bassout of maybe 40 trips so that lets me know that the crappie should be fine

i would too i prefer black crappie but u cant buy them locally also it cost a good bit of money and they could get eaten is easier for me to use my cast net to catch them at my spillway can catch all the baby cats n crappie i can want and shad

maybe i should add some of the shad to the lake too but i think they will get to big for the crappie to eat. luckly nobody cares for the lake anymore nothing but older people live around it and they dont wana mess with it i dislike bass and bass eat crappie and bluegill so id prefer to have cats n crappie mostly n the lake and take out any bass i see

Shad will compete heavily for zooplankton which I think all sizes of crappie need at various times of the year for good growth. Crappie smaller than 8" rely more heavily on zooplankton than larger crappie. It is important for small crappie to grow quickly to minimize stunting or slow growth.

Whatever you put in you are going to need a predator to keep the numbers in balance. Are the shad gizzards or threadfin?

not sure tbh some get pretty damn big like 5 pounds iv caught in my nets is it easy to notice the difference in them? so i could possibly look through them and try to only take the threadfin shad

so in a pond like this what do you think i should try to add to the lake for the crappie t do well? its full of bluegill as is aid not many predators to put a dent in the numbers so id think has plenty of bluegill to feast on should i try to add more bluegill as well so they will make sure t have plenty of forage?


i wana have small eating catfish around the 1-3 pound range channels if possible for eating would b cool to have like 30 monster flatheads around 40 pounds the pond is round 8-10acres so prob could do ok but i dont think ill risk it unless my crappie population went insane over the next few years

Like Bill said shad compete with crappie for zooplankton that black crappie rely on . If you have gizzard shad I would not put them in.

Pat,

Wouldn't that be a plus if the concern is BCP would overpopulate?

Well maybe, but shad compete for food so maybe it doesn’t starve the crappie just slow ( stunt) them .i would think they need all the food they can get and a predator for number controls. Just thinking

how about the threadfin shad not sur ehow big they get would they be a decent alternative? fathead minnows would probably cost to much especially for a lake of this size id have put in 100 pounds a year

Mattmonster, No we do not catch them like crazy. It is more like they are a bonus fish. We have had this pond 10 years and nothing has changed as far as the BCP population. We fish for them but usually catch them when fishing for something else. If we catch 3 or 4 in a day that is good. They are fat and healthy. We have hired pond guys to help but still the same. The BG and LMB have no problem and are also very fat. We may be lite on the zooplankton but I'm not sure. Maybe whatever it is it is a good thing. I have run several water quality tests and they say it is excellent.

The TFS will grow to the 5 to 6" range and that makes a nice sized forage fish. I would work towards a good TFS population if you can.

From the beginning: "a decent amount of BG,CC and LMB 'in pond/lake' around 9 acres or so if you were to add maybe 30 white crappie around 6 inches or so do you think they would take over?" Then you say: "the lake is full of bluegill due to not having any real predators its very hard to catch a bass i fished for 1 year solely with plastic worms and caught only 5 bass out of maybe 40 trips so that lets me know that the crappie should be fine."

I think crappie would NOT do fine in this situation. Crappie could easily overpopulate in this fishery balance. Also from your description I do not think there is a "decent" amount of LMB in the pond/lake. We/you need to know why catches of LMB even those 8"-12" are not common. In a balanced fishery in 9 acres one should be able to catch 5 to 6 LMB at 8"-14" long for every 2 to 3 hr fishing trip using plastic worms and/or live bait. When LMB are balanced one/you should catch a few 6"-12" LMB while fishing for just BG and/or Crappie.

LMB or HSB need to be common or abundant for producing a successful crappie fishery. Is this your private pond/lake or just a place you are allowed to fish? We need to know why LMB are not more common in this pond. See more below.

I would not add crappie to a pond where there is an abundance of BG and where LMB are hard to catch,,,, because high numbers of small bass need to be present to control crappie's prolific numbers or reproduction potential because they can easily overpopulate when predatory pressure is not high on the small 1"-4" most abundant size of crappie. The current high numbers of bluegill are IMO already stressing the natural food base of the pond. The pond is currently at fish carrying capacity. I think the current fishery and the existing overall pond habitat needs to be better assessed, evaluated, and put into a better balance before adding another fish species.

Adding artificial structure or encouraging natural structure "might" help improve the fishery.

Adding crappie I think will further limit the amount of natural foods available for small fish and ALL small fish species will struggle to grow to harvestable sizes. From your description so far,, it sounds to me like the pond needs more predators(LMB) not add new crappie. Adding a new fish capable of reproducing abundantly, that you would like to catch, to a pond at already carrying capacity can put the whole pond ecosystem in " fishery balance trouble". Adding the wrong fish species could further decrease the quality of the fishery long term. Adding crappie to a pond full of BG could create a pond full of stunted BG and stunted Crappie; none bigger than 4"-6".

I think you should first be enhancing the predator fishes rather than adding crappie. WORK to get the pond's fishery balanced to where you can regularly catch 8"-10" BG before adding any crappie. It is possible the pond has too many small BG who are,,, or have been limiting the recruitment of LMB which is why you are not catching very many LMB per fishing trip. Consider adding HSB to the fishery to diversify and improve the predator community and feed the BG so many BG grow to big 8"-11" sizes.

Is this a your private pond/lake or just a place you are allowed to fish? Are there fish feeders on the pond?

heres the thing theres 3 lakes on my road i mostly just fish the bottom the very top lake about 7 acres is horrible the middle lake is decent for blue gill and white crappie at times iv been able t catch like 30 slabs in 2 hours the pond has no catfish and only a few small bass and is only 2 acres which is surprising

the lake isnt mine but nobody has cared for them since 2000 iv been fishing it since i was 10 years old now 27 they dont want anything t do with them put any money or anything they just sit there havnt been socked in decades and allowed me t do what i want to them as far as fish goes since nobody fishes it but maybe 5 people a year

the lake doesnt have small bg it has some big bluegills quite healthy id say i can always catch good sized gills idk tb if it has crappie the second lake does and it does have spillway which when overflow water pours over but iv never caught a crappie in it

instead of adding lmb could i add catfish to use as predators im not a fan of bass id rather grow some big cats than big bass

yeha id love too too bad they die so fast if i catch a bunch in my cast net im sure 80% willl die by the time i put them in large coolers and drive them 20 minutes back to the lakes

Only for a reference, this morning I went ice fishing for BG and caught 13 LMB 12 to 15 in. along with several BG in 2 hrs. of fishing. The hard thing for me is to have any idea how many of any of the fish should I harvest. 10 yrs. ago when we got this pond it was full of stunted LMB and we took a lot out. For some reason now we never catch a stunted LMB but there are still plenty of them. I think we may now be riding that knife edge. After I found this forum about 6 yrs. ago I am reading something interesting and new to me everyday. There is a lot of experience on here and it pays to listen but every situation can be different.Just my 2 cents from my experience. We also have added 300 HSB 3 years ago that are now 20 in. so that may also be of some help.

i just wana have a great crappie and catfishing lake and bluegill so can come out and harvets some good fish when i wana im gonna start pellot feeding too once i add some fish t the pond so the bluegill will beable t eat


also i was told that u can train crappie to eat pellots if so that would b great for hellping them grow

I have not heard of crappies eating pellets but it may be true. I have always fed pellets twice a day because I'm only a mile away and I am there every day. This past year I bought 2 feeders and fed Aquamax MVP twice a day. I really do like the MVP. There are several sizes of pellets and some smaller ones will sink. I now have quite a large number of LMB that will eat pellets that were raised here. I think the sinking makes non feed trained fish feel more comfortable to eat pellets and smaller BG feel safer if they are not on top of the water. Just my observations in watching them each day. CC are not shy feeders either. Maybe the crappies would eat some sinking but I do not see them near the top. Good luck, this is a blast.

Crappie can be pellet trained but this is difficult to get the correct size fingerling crappie and correct blend of training diet sequence. Usually this has to be done in a cage or some sort of tank. Trying to pellet train free ranging crappie to where lots of them are eating pellets, I think is extremely difficult, if not practically impossible.

CC will become more predatory the bigger they grow past 16". They will pellet train a lot better than crappie, although wild CC may not readily train to eat pellets unless there are some other pelleting eating CC present. Most pond owners here buy their CC from a fish farm where the CC are raised on pellets so they already know what pellets are and where to look for them somewhere at the surface.

so your saying if i get channels from a river ect then they wont be able to pellet feed? strange though cats would eat anything basically

I am not saying CC from the river will not eat pelleted feed. Reread what I said - ""wild CC may not readily train to eat pellets unless there are some other pelleting eating CC present. I said may not; I did not say will not.

I am saying it will take some added effort to get them to come up off the bottom for pellets. When they realize food is on the surface they will readily eat pellets. This is what I would do if you stock river CC. Go some where and get some pelleting CC from a pond where CC are eating pellets. To catch them use live bait near the surface when the cats are feeding on pellets. This way you are confident the fish you catch are pellet eaters. These fish will help "teach" the wild CC to eat pellets. It is very possible that a few of the wild river CC will never learn to eat pellets. It is unnatural for bottom oriented CC to feed at the surface; so they have to be conditioned to come to the surface for their food.

I think Bill C nailed it....Data point...I stocked 15 pellet trained CC from a fish farm in my little puddle. They all always showed up at feeding time (I could count them). Later I also stocked a few wild caught CC. The count at feeding time went up but I couldn't keep track as the wild ones seemed to be more shy. When we went to harvest the CC at 2 to 3 pounds, we figured we had them all when there were no more showing up at feeding time. Then last summer my wife caught a 6 and a 7 pound. They must have been two of the wild ones that just choose not to eat pellets.

Bill C You are 100% correct. I stocked 200 CC and BC that were pellet trained when I got them. Funny thing is that since they were added I have never seen them come to the surface to take pellets. Even now several years later..... not saying that they aren’t seining some up that sink.

If I had persnickety CC, I would buy a single bag of sinking catfish feed. Mix some floating and sinking. I hand feed. Using a feeder might be different. But CC can be shy till they get used to your presence. We have multiple year classes of CC recruitment and I will still see some CC frantically swimming about for feed near the bottom while others are eating floating pellets. They know there is food near by the feeding frenzy, but have just not been conditioned yet to go to the surface which is unnatural for them.

Some feed on the bottom (modest amounts of sinking feed - don't get carried away and foul the water) will get the shy ones conditioned to eat commercial feed and look for it at feeding time. Once they have the idea they can transition to the floating feed.

You don't have to continue feeding the sinking feed. Just long enough to get them started. One bag likely will be all that is needed.

John

John they must be finding enough to eat they are 5-6# now ....

ohh well guess if the channels wont eat the feed the bluegills will get nice n fat if only i could get crappie to eat pellets


tbh i dont want my channels getting over 4 pounds so would it be better idea t try to not feed them? since i prefer them for food id think it would keep them around 2-3 pounds if they arnt eating regularly which is perfect

I don’t think you can starve them, they will find something to eat . Feed your BG and they will reproduce more and help feed your CC.

but feeding them pellets will get them bigger generaly though right?

Well ..... yes but you don’t want to harvest skinny catfish for eating. I would stock small amounts of them and as you harvest them add more. Stagger stock them so you will have the size you want . Just an idea to toss around

ugh sucks that crappie is such a hard fish t keep bluegill r easy can feed em n they get big fast crappie have t have fish and only small fish reason i dont want bass in the pond is im afraid they will start eating my big gills n crappies and its hard t keep fishing thebig ones out

BG will overpopulate as will crappie.. that’s why you need predators to keep a balance