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Hey guys, its been a number of years since I have actively posted in here so I will do a little catch up. 3 acre pond with CC, CNB,Crappie,LMB, and now YP. When I first bought the place over 15 years ago I had a pond over run with little LMB. At the time my goal was to grow larger LMB so I began culling around 500 a year for several years. Things started looking good and I was catching less 10 inch LMB and more 15 plus inchers.I added black and white crappie about 10 years ago. I have culled them at about 100-200 a year average size is 10-11 inches.
The last four years have really been amazing as I was seeing all year classes and lots of them. My average bluegill I caught even got larger to around 8 inches. It seems adding the crappie somehow really benefited me even though most people say not to do that in a small pond. From spring to fall I now regularly see tons of schools of small fish in clouds in the water with many flying out of the water from larger fish chasing them. Average Channel cat is probably 4 pounds and there are plenty of them. Last October I added 300 6-9 inch YP. My goal has changed and I would like to know what I should do to grow Large YP and crappie. I caught a couple of the YP a month ago and they really look good and fat. I just want to know how to cull each species with my goal in mind. I am now in a place where I can focus more on the pond and plan to start a feeding program come spring.Thanks guys

Last edited by John Kruid; 02/10/21 03:47 PM.

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With two other predators in the pond to eat small YP, keeping a viable perch population around without restocking is likely to be a bigger problem than having to remove any small YP.

You should probably see how the YP population does in the future to decide if you want more or less of them. Either way, I suggest placing some branches (big end out of the pond) in the water around the shore at the time of ice-out as spawning structure for the YP (they might be big enough this Spring, probably a surer thing next year). This will let you help increase YP number IF that turns out to be needed, but OTOH will let you remove the branches with YP egg strings if you want to decrease their numbers in the future.

I've no experience with Crappie ponds, so hopefully someone else can talk Crappy number control in greater detail than "if you have too many, fish a lot and remove all the small ones you can."


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There are tons of tree branches in piles a long the damn which runs the longest shoreline. We also normally get about 20-25% pond vegetation cover by mid summer. I guess I'm wondering if I should now be leaving smaller bass instead of culling a bunch in order to get larger crappie and YP in the future. I am currently culling 10-11 inch crappie as that's almost all I catch. I never cull any bluegill. I very rarely keep a catfish I catch.

Last edited by John Kruid; 02/09/21 12:11 PM.

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John, CP(B or W) control will be keeping everything you catch. If wanting bigger B-WCP it's thinning the number of intermediates but I cannot say with any certainty what the combination of YP and B-WCP will provide. I'm finding that competition for the same forage base has more limiting ability than anything else running against my YP, and with that said, too many predator species is not going to be conducive to raising large YP. If the YP are feed trained I believe they may have a better chance at attaining larger sizes being less dependent on the same supporting forage base.
Sounds like you have a very dynamic fishery and rest assured a 6" female YP will reproduce if the proper number of males are present to do their job also..

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They all look like black crappie to me now. When I first stocked them I did put a bunch of adult whites in, but I don't see anything that resembles them in my pond anymore. They were very white with almost no coloration. The YP are not feed trained as far as I know, but were 6-9 inches when stocked. Surprisingly with this combination my bluegill population hasn't suffered that I can tell and I see way more different year classes now. I was thinking that leaving the smaller bass in would help with predation on the young crappie and YP in the future and in turn grow larger YP and BC. I used to pull every dang little bass out, but now with my goal changing I'm wondering if my culling of lmb sizes should change too. Im also going off of what I've read about YP in assuming they will help eat young crappie as well since they spawn first.


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John, maybe we can get Bill Cody to stop in and add to this, he will have some good input on how these 2 may interact.
I know they are both targeting the same forage in similar sizes so I have to look at what the BG and LMB are doing at the same time. If LMB have a choice of a 4" YP or 3" BG I think the YP will be preferred just because of shape.
As I said, the dynamics are very unique and for me, it would only be a guess..

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I agree as far as the perch being favored by the bass. Hopefully he will stop in with his thoughts. I am also curious if adding any other forage species may help. We had gambusia for years, but I'm pretty sure they are all gone now. I can drive South and get pumpkinseed if they would be of any help. Ive never seen a crawdad ,but I do see evidence of there mounded holes usually on the backside of the dam. Down below is a small overflow pond that goes dry every few years.

Last edited by John Kruid; 02/09/21 05:35 PM.

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Looks like Sunil has a pretty close fish population in his pond. Is there a way to tag people like on FB ?


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It sounds like the fish community is currently in decent condition. Keep in mind it will change each year. For now since you have crappie, I would remove every one you catch. The YP will spawn this spring, then in 2022 - 2024 watch to see if any young YP are being caught. I suspect that the numerous LMB will reduce YP numbers to the occasional bonus fish. If angler catches in 2023 and beyond include small 5"-6" YP then what you are doing is working. With LMB present I very much doubt you will ever see slow growing stunted yellow perch.


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Okay, should I remove the large LMB Say 3 pounds plus instead of removing the small ones? I do have a decent population of them including a few in the 5-10lb. range.


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Heres some we caught just before winter.

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IMG_0829.jpg IMG_0834.jpg IMG_0830.jpg IMG_0831.jpg IMG_0832.jpg IMG_0833.jpg IMG_0835.jpg

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I'm no pro but those sure are nice looking fish to me!!!


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Thank you sir!


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I had to look up what CNB were. I now assume CNB = CNBG. I doubt CNBG will thrive and produce well in KS climate; this is especially true if the pond gets ice cover. CNBG struggle in ponds with ice cover.

It is going to take someone smarter than me to figure out a good harvest and annual management plan to get YP to thrive in a pond with a strong LMB population with BCP, CC, and CNBG. Some YP could / might survive in this community but not thrive nearly as well as LMB and BCP. LMB and CC are going to eat more small and yearling(5"-6") YP than other panfish. Plus the BCP will eat a lot of the YP fry when they have their planktonic open water life cycle phase. Creating enough habitat to enhance the YP will IMO cause too many other species to overpopulate.

I repeat my opinion noted above: The YP will spawn this spring, then in 2022 - 2024 watch to see if any young YP are being caught. I suspect that the numerous LMB and CC will reduce YP numbers to the occasional bonus fish. If angler catches in 2023 and beyond include small 5"-6" YP then what you are doing is working.

Last edited by Bill Cody; 02/11/21 10:53 AM.

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Thank you


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To me the larger bass look a bit stunted, so that is the size class that I would target on removing. Strive for 30# per surface acre.


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Look at the size of mouth on those two bass noted above. What do you think they are eating - 2"-3" fish? I doubt it. Probably mostly 5"-6" fish and some 6" - 8" YP. and LMB with narrow body depth and are frequently encountered.
IMG_0834.jpg (56 KB, 27 downloads)
IMG_0833.jpg (96.78 KB, 23 downloads)

Last edited by Bill Cody; 02/12/21 11:12 AM.

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Bill, I understand that. That is why I was wondering if I should switch to removing the large ones. Plenty of two plus pounders. Esshup, I believe that will be the plan this year. Thank you for y'all's input.

Last edited by John Kruid; 02/12/21 02:24 PM.

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