Pond Boss Forums FISH & FISHING Show off your catch Nothing to show off as it seems to be a Crappie :(

Caught this yesterday and it sure seems to be a Crappie

He didn't go back in and I really thought my pond was void of them!

Just more reason to keep fishing!

Looks like a Black Crappie to me.

Thanks Esshup.

Did I read where Black Crappie are not as bad to have in a BG/LMB pond as White Crappie?

I don't want either but maybe it's the lesser of two evils?

If my count is correct, it has 7 dorsal spines which would indeed make it a black crappie.

I can assure you, crappie in a lmb/bg pond is not want you want unless you have lots of acreage. My pond is about 10 acres and Ive had to absolutely battle the black crappie for the last few years to keep their numbers in check. They will take over and throw a kink in the food chain that can cause your lmb to suffer greatly.

Thanks Colby!

I've caught 3 more since then about the same size and they do not go back in the pond!

With having to keep yours in-check, for my Crappie being at this size, your best recommendation for bait to catch them on? So far they've been hitting worms but sporadically.

Thanks again!

It is hard to beat a small minnow on a Nu.4 wire hook for cr.

Are you talking plastic worms or nightcrawlers? Minnows are great for crappie and if you cant get minnows, a small fluke bait works really well. Look for Zoom "baby bass" flukes in walmart and put them on a #3 or 4 gamagatzu hook. They are going to be hunting for bass hatchlings this time of year so they will eat the zooms up. Couple of years ago I could go through an entire pack of these in an afternoon catching em'
If the crappie are too small to use minnows or flukes, you can try small crappie jigs or my favorite... the beetle spin. The white body with the red dot works best for me. Heck you can probably get a few on crickets as well.

Maybe you are lucky and that is the only one in the pond!!


or its really some sort of super hybrid striped callico wiper!! HEHE.


That is still a better problem to have than not having a pond!
I havent read too many of your other posts, want to share a link for me to get up to date???

Minnows are truely the best in open water, and some people can POUND crappie under ice, just not me. They seem to spawn shallow, and live in open water but will use cover. if that helps, hehe.

the minature spinner bait lures with the jig attachment (similar to what they mentioned above??) seem to work good on hot summer days. and as you know they are school fish so catch one and there are more there but you knew that. Wish i lived close enough to help with the problem.!!

Thanks for all the tips, I'll try 'em all! And I like the Calico Wiper!

BTW, I caught two of these on a sm nightcrawler last night as well. 12" stockers from October of last year.



fishn_m, There was a guy before me who stocked everything in this pond including crappie. I caught some 13"rs last April not thinking anything of it but then had (what I thought was) a complete fish in June, but apparently there were survivors, and that's what I'm after.

As far as getting you caught up, I'm probably a PITA on here with all my questions/issues. I'll try to find a post with a short version but this pond has gone from a thing of atrocious (as one PB member described) to looking beautiful in just a year because of everyone here on PB (and some hard earned $$).

PB Rocks!

After realizing there's BCP in my pond I had everyone out at my place on Sunday for the folks' 55th wedding anniversary and "hooked" everyone up.

We caught about 50 of these, all the same size, on small crawlers, minnows and tube jigs, and they were caught wherever a line was tossed. We also caught a few of my LMB stockers from Sept but still no HSB (also stocked in Sept), and my buddy even pulled in one of the 4 lb LMB I've been seeking to remove. Although, it was full of eggs so it was released against my better judgement.

It was a bittersweet day as the kids were having a blast catching lots of fish including my Niece's first catch. At first she wouldn't reel one in but by the end of the day she was reeling them in, holding them, baiting the hook and reaching in the minnow bucket for more bait. A milestone day for my wonderful Niece! As far as my Grand Nephew, he was fearless!

Regarding the BCP, I'm at a loss. All signs pointed to a complete fish-kill last June and now I'm finding that I may be Crappie infested and not sure what to do. Some were even loaded with eggs.

I have 1500 BG arriving this weekend to be caged and fed until big enough to release for the LMB stockers from Sept.

Do I just keep culling the BCP in hopes to get rid of them? Or do I have to just accept the BCP are in there and deal with it? (due to cost, electroshocking is not an option)

Also, at feeding times are the Crappie eating the AM500 as well?

Help????

Crappie shouldn't be feeding on the pellets, not a pond owner but I would say it looks like you have a challenge on your hands with that many crappie and trying to eliminate them. I think you mentioned HSB, not sure how many you stocked but that should help some with the crappie fry / smaller fish. Let those kids fish whenever they want and just keep removing...., at least it is giving them some 'action'

LOL, managing a pond is the challenge! But I wouldn't trade it for the world And I didn't mention the two GSF I also removed

I stocked 100 HSB and LMB at 6-8" in Sept. The bass have barely grown due to my upside down forage issue with the BG but the HSB have grown well, I just haven't been able to catch one yet this year to evaluate their growth.

Good news on the Crappie not eating pellets though! Which means it's the HSB that have been feeding.

It's open season on my pond for the kids and anyone else to cull the Crappie. I even thought about caging them for anyone who may want some as it seems a shame to be feeding the wildlife so many Crappie! My Coons are getting fat!

Thanks Beastman!

DISCLAIMER This is not a 100% certain way for BCP management and is just a theory I am trying to apply to what I am doing here.

I recently made a 3 ac BCP pond for high volume fishing for physically challenged people. For my area the research I done showed that nearby smaller lakes required anywhere from mid 60's to near 90 person fishing days per surface acre to keep the crappie under control and produce good size fish. I seen where your pond is 2ac and that would come out to 130 to 180 person fishing days per year harvesting the BCP.

I personally do not believe you can fish the BCP out of a pond. I just think you will find up and down years on the catch rates. You will get them down and then bam a good hatch puts you right back into catchem out mode again. This is the very reason I done this in a pond I can drain and refill (high volume well) in just weeks if something goes wrong.


Maybe a lot of that LMB full of eggs will raise and eat some BCP for you. As far as what you did with the little ones fishing keep them working on the BCP for you.

Thanks Tums and I really admire what you're doing with your BCP fishery!



I'm lucky in that I don't have to ask anyone twice to bring their kids out to fish. And for some, it's the parents that answer for the kids and ask for an extra pole when they come out. Fishing brings out the kids in all of us, and big or small, nothing beats reeling in a fish!



We'll keep working on getting them out of there. My fear is that they will outcompete the LMB for the BG fry once they spawn, let alone the LMB fry as well .

It's a good thing pond management is an ongoing venture. I would hate to get bored with nothing to do

Thanks for your reply!

Will LMB in significant numbers control the population of juvenile BCP similar to the way it would BG?

Note that the crappie pictured are in good condition. Is that true of all/most of the ones caught (same size and condition)?

With the limitation on available funds your options are somewhat reduced. You can do a few things though. One thing to keep in mind always is ponds are not monolithic. Just because crappie overpopulate and stunt in a high % of ponds does not guarantee that they will in yours. Every pond is different and goals are too.

With that said you should consider fishing out as many crappie as possible , don't remove any LMB unless it is in poor/skinny condition for a year , go ahead and stock the BG and find out what your HSB are doing. HSB help a lot in controlling crappie (which may be one reason your crappie look in ok condition - HSB eating a bunch and thus leaving more food for those crappie left). Note that the crappie's good condition could also be related to it being a new/empty/fish kill pond. HSB are more effective on crappie reduction because of their metabolism in cool water. Many warmwater fish like BG and LMB have slow eating during the time crappie activity picks up in late winter so crappie predation is reduced especially at the spawn. Crappie spawn before LMB and BG so their fry have an advantage and don't get eaten as much by BG and LMB yoy. On the other hand HSB are more active in cool water and will prey on crappie before , during and after the crappie spawn. More LMB and HSB will work on the crappie numbers while you do the same. Have a bunch of kids over , often. We use church groups and scouts to help us with harvest.

DJS yes to your question - in enough numbers. But due to the above LMB are not as effective on crappie as they are on BG. Concentrate on the fry/yoy time frame when most of the babies are eaten (very high morts on yoy fish). Large reductions in numbers during that time are important to controlling any high fecundity (reproduction)fish species like crappie and BG.

Thanks LOvn and admire you for turning it into family fun.

DJ here is article that talk about using LMB for that.

Black crappie adults feed primarily on fish and aquatic insects. The young feed on microscopic plants and animals and on small insects. Crappie will not eat floating fish feeds. The diets of black crappie and largemouth bass are very similar. Even worse, crappie have a tendency to produce inconsistent but sometimes extremely large numbers of young. Crappie ponds get out of balance very easily, and frequently the crappie are either very rare, or the pond is overcrowded with small crappie that don’t grow very well and also compete with the largemouth bass.

Crappie can be frustrating but, especially in larger ponds, there are some things that you can do to increase your chance of success. In general, crappie should only be stocked in ponds of at least 25 acres in size. However, under the right set of conditions, crappie can be raised successfully in smaller ponds. The key to raising large crappie is to increase the density of predators by overcrowding the pond with largemouth bass. Large numbers of small, hungry largemouth bass will crop off crappie reproduction even in boom years in the crappie cycle. If poaching is a problem in your pond, this can result in over-fishing of the largemouth bass and ruin the crappie fishery. A poacher can remove enough bass in a single afternoon to upset this management scheme. It should also be noted that correctly managed crappie ponds usually will not have big largemouth bass to catch. If you desire big bass, then you should try the “Big Bass” management option outlined above.

There are two species of crappie, but black crappie are best suited for stocking in ponds. Stock 15 adult black crappie per acre in an established balanced or bass crowded bass and bluegill pond. Catch and remove largemouth bass when they are longer than 15 inches. This will create a crowd of smaller bass to control the crappie population and allow the remaining fish to grow faster.

Good crappie fishing in farm ponds is difficult to maintain for long periods of time. If the pond does get out of balance and overpopulated with small crappie, stock 30-50 adult largemouth bass (10 to 12 inches long) per acre. This will increase predation on the small crappie and help reduce the population size. If stocking does not seem to help, the pond should be drawn down to half its normal surface area in late summer or early in the fall. Bass harvest should stop during this time. The draw down makes it easier for bass to find and eat the crappie. Let the pond refill during the winter and spring. Repeat the draw down in the next fall if needed.


http://www.uaex.edu/wneal/Pond_Management/pages/stocking/crappie.html

Tums while that is good info it is not the newest info. It is a Wes Neal article when he was at AR. He is a PB guy and now teaches at MS State. During that time period the ability of HSB to help control crappie in ponds was unknown. The HSB data is still in the early phases of development in experimental ponds across the SE. Good results have been seen in those HSB/crappie/TShad and FH stocked ponds with none of them getting out of balance yet. I stress yet. My guess is the most effective predation scheme on crappie using warmwater fish will be HSB during cool/cold periods mixed with LMB during warm periods.

If you're saying that crappie won't eat pellets, I've found they do.

They don't like to take them off the top, but they do take sinkers. I've found pellets in the stomachs of several crappie. They take artificial pellets too, I've caught 3 or 4 on fake pellets made of soft plastic.

Another good strategy is to not bass fish close to the banks in the spring and early summer. The male bass do a good job of protecting their fry and smaller fingerlings. If you catch the male LMB, most of his fry will probably be wiped out.

I stocked BCP because they are reliable biters. My BG and RES are just too smart for me. No danger of them overpopulating, my wife is a fishing machine.

I too have BCP in my pond but that was before I found this site. They are black nose BCP and are a neat looking fish. Due to the rain hitting on the days I have off, I have not made it out there yet to try and catch some during spawn but hope to this weekend.

They were stocked in 2009 so I will be curious to see how they look now and if I catch any small ones that will prove they pulled off a successful spawn.

If I am lucky to get one I will post some pictures.

Ewest, thank you again for the valuable info! And thanks to everyone for your replies, info and input.


Yes, all the Crappie caught are in the condition seen in the photos and all of the same size (with minor size variations).
Here's two more from yesterday, 10 total along with 3 BG and a BA turtle that I couldn't quite get to shore on my 4lb test .







That seems to be my current dilemma, finding out what the HSB are doing. I'm just assuming at this point that at feeding time it's the HSB coming for food as I'm unable to tell and I can't catch one as easily as I could last year after stocking them. Maybe they're too spoiled on AM500 to go after the minnow, nightcrawler, SS, tube jigs, etc.? I've even tried AM500 pellet-flies to no avail. My other option when they really start feeding is to toss a cast-net, but so far I haven't physically seen one of them. I'm just hoping the HSB are still there as they were growing fast last fall!

For now, it's open season for Crappie at Croakers Creek

Thanks again everyone!

PB Rocks!

PS - Here's a photo of one I caught before the fish-kill last June. It was heartbreaking to see so many floaters

The pic is of a HBG. I assume you are going to stock 1500 BG. Is that correct ? HBG are different and will not provide much forage for the LMB.