Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Corrective stocking Old pond with bass bream and CRAPPIE about 4 acres

Last year I purchased a farm in Alabama with about a 4 acre old(50 + years) pond on it not too far from my home. We had the worst drought in 70 or 80 years in my part of Alabama these past two years so the level dropped a lot (about 2 acres in size). I was worried about a fish kill but none occurred. The pond is back at full pool with the streams feeding it running well. I put line in yesterday and caught a lot of small bass and fair sized crappie. The one other time my son fished in it, he caught blue gill. I wish crappie were not present but? I wonder if I need to add forage this spring for bass crappie(Tilapia or thread-fin) I plan on putting a feeder for bluegill production and to fertlize. I am sure it is acid but I may have to wait on lime. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Anything I can do about crappie besides rotenone? How about some coppernose bluegill? Feeder recommendations? I am full of questions!!

dogdoc

Welcome to PB dogdoc. You come to the right place with all your questions.

If this pond is that new to you, I would spend all my time analyzing what you got. Spend all the time you can reading articles on the site here, and the posts that are made by others become an invaluable place for learning. I would be hesiatant to spend any money on the pond, be it for forage, fish, habitat, etc, until you REALLY know what you got going on. Granted you might have to spend some money to learn what you have, but thats better than throwing money into it and realizing later that it was all for nil.

The pros here will be able to guide you in the right direction for what you need to look for and do. I bet one question they will ask is what would be your goal of what to expect back from your pond? Fishing, swimming, types of fish you like, etc.?

It's better to do nothing until you have all the facts. To many of us are impatient like little kids and go overboard and find out later we messed up....Have fun....... Jim

Jim is on the money. Hopefully these rains we're getting across the southeast are helping your pond fill back up. Figure out what you truly want the pond to produce for you and your family. Then figure out where you are right now- your water quality situation and your current fish situation. Invest in an electrofishing survey before stocking, fertilizing, feeding. If you need lime, fertilizing will not be productive. A sample of your fish population will tell you where to go with stocking. Its an expense up front but will pay dividends down the road as you work toward your goals. Welcome to PB!

Dogdoc- You really need to decide if you want to deal with crappie or not. If you don't want them, then best money spent will be to kill everything off and start over. If you decide to try coping with them, it will most likely mean alot of pond managment to keep them under control. I would guess that every crappie you catch should not be returned, and the rest of the other fish probably should be returned till you know what your whole situation is. Other ways to control the crappeie: Possibly netting or trapping? This might also let you see waht else you have in there.


You may also want to wait another year or two to see if the water is always going down. How deep is it normally and what is it when its low? This low cycle may kill off fish and needs to be adressed if thats the case.

Feeders are always a good thing, but do you want to feed stuff if you kill it off anyway? There are many good threads on hear about feeder recommendations. Two are often refered to, Moultrie and Texas hunter. Each have their place. Try to find those threads.

You will want to start keeping records of ALL fish caught. There are charts on this website that will tell you if your fish are growing well or not. Keep track of weight and length of each and every fish, and probably the date you caught them. This way you will know if the fish are getting healthier. You could also set a small minnow trap or simialr, and see what small fish are present too.

The only other thing that I can think of to add is to check the stream and see what fish might wash down it into your pond. If Crappie could wash down from another pond/lake, then you will just have to learn how to manage them (lotta work in reducing their numbers).

It's always easier to remove mouths to feed than to add enough forage fish for all the mouths. One LMB needs 10# of fish to gain 1# of weight.......

Thanks for replies. I am going to start by liming and fertilizing and see what happens this year. I will try to catch as many crappie as possible. thanks

dogdoc

Doc, don't overlook your county agent as a potential source of help.

dogdoc
I agree about deciding on living with the crappie. If the goal is producing large bass, the crappie will make life hard. Liming, fertilizing, and feeding can help put more pounds of fish in the water, but it may not help with growing bigger fish if the populations are out of whack. A fish population study is the best tool for deciding where your pond is at now. Most ponds in AL I see with both predators need some more forage, but some are beyond saving without spending much more time and money than starting over would cost.

-HH

I am new here, was wondering if LMB will help with the crappie population or will they reproduce faster than they can eat them?

LMB can help keep the crappie population down. However, in most circumstances they are not able to keep up and crappies still become stunted.

To add to CJ's post, Crappie spawn sooner than LMB, so their YOY will be large enough to eat YOY LMB once they leave daddies protection.

The crappie spawn just before the LMB. The problem is the crappie yoy compete with LMB yoy for food (plankton + inverts etc) and because they are just a little ahead the crappie yoy have the advantage so LMB yoy often starve. Now the 1 year old crappie who are way to numerous will eat LMB yoy and fry.