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#153630 03/15/09 10:59 AM
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I have a six year old healthy 5 acre pond in Texas...Coppernose, bass and cats all doing well...Is my pond too small to add crappies?

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I wouldn't recommend it. Ive been trying to catch any crappie that are in my pond out. They compete with your bass for food and because they spawn earlier than everything else they can get overpopulated really quick.

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There are some interesting threads on Crappie. Here one Crappie Pond.

Crappie don't tend to do well in smaller bodies of water.

Use google search and do a site specific search (go to google and type crappie site:pondboss.com and you will find a bunch of threads about crappie.


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jsand and Jeff give sound advice.

It's not that crappie are bad for smaller bodies of water, it's just that they are unpredictable spawners and don't play well with other predators.

They can very quickly overpopulate and decimate smaller-sized forage. Without extremely careful management, they can become stunted and cause other predators to become stunted.

That being said, I think crappie would be great in pond-sized bodies of water in certain situations--again, with careful management. Our "crappie pond," when we're finished stocking, will have black crappie, HSB, FHs, TFS, and GSH. As long as we monitor crappie recruitment and adjust accordingly, I think crappie will work well even in a pond.


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In our 5 acre pond crappie are just one variety of fish that are a part of the overall balance. They are not a problem, per se.

Admittedly, we do have large predators that keep them and the yellow perch as well as bluegill in check.

Predation among each of the different species is dependent on relative size. They all eat each others new hatches until size becomes the limiting factor. When that limit is reached the largest predators, Large mouth Bass and Northern Pike take over. That is why we never remove a large predator from the pond. We have the fun of catching them and then release them back into the pond to do their part helping manage the whole pond ecosystem.

It is a balancing act.


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Dwight, what sizes do your crappie get to in your pond? Do you see consitent spawning from year to year or is it hit or miss?

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CPN, I would like to respond to this, but Dwight is the governor of his pond, so I yeild to him as the expert. I am sure he would agree with me that there is a new batch o' crappie every year.


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I dont know much about crappie, are they easy to sex or is the female generally larger like LMB? My point is, could crappie in a small pond be a put and take female only fish?


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Dwight's first sentence ...."In our 5 acre pond crappie are just one variety of fish that are a part of the overall balance. They are not a problem, per se," rings true for my pond also.

You have to have a good predator base and do extreme culling.

Right now and in the next few weeks, in my pond, you can go to submerged cover and catch crappie one after the other. I take them all out unless I happen to catch a bigger one. The biggest Black Crappie out of my pond was 12" and maybe 14" which are a nice size to catch.


Excerpt from Robert Crais' "The Monkey's Raincoat:"
"She took another microscopic bite of her sandwich, then pushed it away. Maybe she absorbed nutrients from her surroundings."

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Sunil, how big is your pond? I don't recall having ever read it on here... 12" BC are nice! Some darn good eating! I think in larger ponds say 3 acres and 12 ft deep in size, crappie spawning isn't so hit or miss and that makes managing them a little easier.

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6-7 acres.


Excerpt from Robert Crais' "The Monkey's Raincoat:"
"She took another microscopic bite of her sandwich, then pushed it away. Maybe she absorbed nutrients from her surroundings."

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 Quote:
Dwight, what sizes do your crappie get to in your pond? Do you see consitent spawning from year to year or is it hit or miss?

The crappie in our pond are all year classes with the large class going 12-14 inches.

All of the fish species spawn every year with the exception of the Northern Pike which we think are all females. If the NP do spawn, We have never seen any evidence of it.


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One thing Dwight has that I don't is the NP.


Excerpt from Robert Crais' "The Monkey's Raincoat:"
"She took another microscopic bite of her sandwich, then pushed it away. Maybe she absorbed nutrients from her surroundings."

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NP are not easy to get to spawn in smaller ponds and lakes. They need flooded vegetation to successfully spawn on. In nature this comes from a lake flooding due to the winter melt and heavy late winter/early spring rains, this doesn't commonly happen in ponds and man made lakes...

One man made lake I fish in PA was drained for dam repair. After a couple years, when the repair was finished they allowed it to fill back to full pool. It filled up all winter covering all the vegetation that had grown while the lake was lowered. The year class the NP produced that year was rather impressive! Otherwise that lake has little to no natural reproduction...

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The Co-op extension material on ponds (State level fisheries scientists) provides that crappie should not be stocked in waters less than 40 acres. Look at the thread JHAP linked. It has a good discussion and a couple exceptions to that advice similar to what davatsa is doing.
















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I've seen publications from different states say anywhere from 20 acres plus to 250 acres plus. I think I even recall one saying nothing less than 2,000.

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 Originally Posted By: CJBS2003
I've seen publications from different states say anywhere from 20 acres plus to 250 acres plus. I think I even recall one saying nothing less than 2,000.


I think medium sized ponds would be more of a problem. Small ponds are very easy to control by fishing and trapping.

My BC should have their first spawn this year, so I'll let you know! \:\)

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I'll be interested to hear...


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