Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Crappie vs fatheads

I have read alot about crappie overwhelming a pond but.........since i have my 100 walleye and 15 catfish, 50 largemouth (along with a few smallmouth, hybrid BG, and YP). I am wondering if it would be alright to stock 50 black crappie and use them as my forage bait-instead of always buying FH and hoping they reproduce before they are eaten for a snack. Thoughts????

Beings that there population just exploded in my pond this year after 10 years with no problems I would say dont do it. I have been trying to get them out since I got the pond and thought they were almost gone then I catch 30 of them yesterday in one spot. Plus its almost like adding another predator to the pond cause they grow so quick and eat so much. They are alot like a 12" bass in what they eat. Ive been catching them on a 1/2 oz rat-l-trap all weekend.

In addition to what jsand said about crappie being a predator, from what I've read they're cyclical in spawning results. It seems that they'll randomly produce massive classes that end up being more than a pond is able to support and then you have a bunch of stunted crappie on your hands. Also, I think I read that they spawn before largemouth bass so the young crappie actually prey on the young bass. Since you already have some yellow perch in your pond I'd try to get them reproducing well as they're more suited in shape for walleye and smallmouth bass to prey on. How large is your pond?

Work on the habitat to help more forage to reach a larger size before being eaten by your predators. Also, make sure you keep the predator numbers(and in pounds) in check... How big is your pond?

Have you considered adding GSH to the mix?

Pond is approximately 1 acre in size....has anyone had any success with crappies in their ponds??

I am definitely not an expert and many times think rather simply...but if everyone wants to put FH in to reproduce than Isnt crappie doing the same thing...just as long as you have enough predators to manage them??

Thanks and keep letting me know what you think before I make a major mistake

I am sure that there are successful 1 acre crappie ponds, but they're probably the exception to the rule. Fathead minnows are put in ponds primarily to provide forage in the first year or so for gamefish that are stocked. Them becoming established and providing a permanant forage base also seems to be the exception to the rule as they are slow, easily caught fish. Golden shiners would probably have a better chance of becoming established in sufficient numbers for storage but in a pond with a lot of established predators it'll probably be hard. Crappie are different than fathead because they have the potential to become a predator if they get large enough, and that'll just be more fish you have to provide forage for. Fatheads and shiners won't compete with your bass and walleyes. I don't know much about walleyes but 100 seems like it may be a lot for a 1 acre pond, especially with two species of bass in the mix as well.

You a predator heavy already, adding crappies will most likely cause more problems than solutions. I would removed 50% of your walleye at a minimum.

Crappies can be successful in small ponds, but you have to really work at it. Either many stunted LMB to help control crappie reproduction and even then, it's no guarantee. The heavy use of traps to trap and remove crappies along with high fishing pressure on them. Or pray you have one of those 1 acre ponds that just seems to never produce a good crappie spawn. I have seen a number of small ponds that just couldn't pull off a successful crappie spawn, but a number of different reasons. Then you just maintain crappie number via stocking.

The only success (I think) with crappie in my pond is my successfully removing them via angling. There are other fish better suited for forage for LMB than crappie. Crappie will act more as a predator than forage. 1) they spawn earlier than most of the other fish in your pond, so the crappie fry and fingerlings will feed on the fry of the other fish.
2) Crappie don't have a spawn that's consistent. It seems like it's either boom or bust.

FHM aren't the best forage for your LMB or WE. FHM will be fine for fish up to about 8" or so, but once they get bigger they will need larger fish to feed on. Golden shiners or perch for the WE, Golden Shiners, YP or BG for the LMB.

So far so good here. I have a 1.5a pond that's 5 years old. I have no problem keeping the crappie under control by fishing. If their numbers ever become a concern, I will reduce the weed cover and let the bass hammer them.

Bobad, if that day of concern comes, will the LMB be able to cooperate? What if the BC snack down on the LMB instead?

What we want and what the fish can/will do are often very different things. I love catching Crappie. If someone wants to add them and is willing to put in the hard work to manage a small pond with them, along with knowing most of what could go wrong, then the choices are much easier to make.

If a crappie comes along that can eat my 20"+ LMB, then I'll be concerned. No, wait! I'll be delighted!

Kidding aside, I've always thought crappie are very cover dependent. I think they get out of control when there's lots and lots of cover. I don't have that problem, but I know exactly what you mean. I've fished ponds that had way too many small, stunted crappie.

I have experience with Crappie in 2 ponds. I threw 3 crappie into a 1/3 acre pond 4 years ago and last spring after not fishing that pond for a while caught 80 8-9" crappie in about 5 hours over 2 days. A few weeks ago I caught 30 approximately the same size. This pond had some decent bass in it and I am finding mostly small bass in there now. We love catching and eating crappie, so this has been somewhat fun as long as we can keep the fishing pressure up on the crappie when they are biting.

The other pond is a 3 acre pond belonging to my neighbor that I lease and have been fishing for 3 years. He seems to have acheived balance. He has 10-13 lb LMB and lots of 3-5 pounders in it but also has a large crappie population where many of them are 15-16 inches in size. He also has giant bluegill in that pond. I imagine that all of the fry from the bluegill, bass and crappie are probably feeding all those large fish.

Can we come fishing? Sounds like a dream fishery! You should walk over and research and share your thoughts with the forum or even write an article for PB. 15-16" crappie in a 3 acre pond defies the common conceptions here on the forum. I want to learn more!

We had a pond behind our house when I was a kid. The pond was around two acres, maybe slightly larger, and averaged 6-8 feet in depth. There were only LMB and crappie. There was a very high number of bass to start with and they grew like crazy. It was not uncommon to catch 20-30 fish weighing from 2-8 lbs in a couple of hours. The crappie also became heavily populated and HUGE! It was the best of both worlds for several years. On a few occasions we would catch 150 crappie a day, all of good size and up to 2.5 lbs. With the heavy fishing pressure on the crappie and little culling of the bass, it seemed to work well.....then a drought hit and the pond went dry. I sure would have liked to have seen how it all played out, however, I'm not brave enough to try the LMB/Crappie combo in my own pond! It must have somehow just been a unique situation that worked perfectly for that pond..?? well, until it went dry.

Now I am not an advocate of using crappie as forage in most cases, but think about what Dave is asking, what he is trying to achieve, and what his current situation is.

Most of you guys assumed he wanted to grow big crappies and were afraid of them overreproducing and stunting out at a small size. Dave is asking in my predator heavy situation would stocking crappies work as a forage to feed those fish? Also he doesnt need his game fish to reproduce successfully and their babies actually are just forage as well, slowing the baby gamefish growth down just a bit will actually work in his favor to provide meals for his predators.

As crazy as it sounds, I think in this exact situation he may be onto something. He needs a fish that will reproduce to provide something more for his walleye and bass to eat.

In a one acre pond I can't guarantee that this plan would work because crappies are not consistent in anything they do, but if you monitored the situation, and pulled out all the crappie bigger than 6 inches that you catch, I think you could pull this off and provide forage to your walleyes without spending money annually on baitfish stocking.

The reason I say to pull out the 6 inchers or bigger is that they are too big for your walleyes to eat once they get past 6 inches and then they become predators as well and are wasting resources.

If I were to do this experiment in your situation I would stock a couple dozen black crappies in the 8-12 inch range this spring and then I would work on catching them and getting them out over the next couple years and cross my fingers and hope they make a bunch of babies. Then just remove the surviving babies who make it bigger than 6 inches.

I have observed that walleyes eat crappies in a small pond setting.

I may have mentioned it before but our city lake was conducting a study about possibly adding Saugeye to the lake to help manage Crappie as they have become over populated in the lake and are not getting much over 8-10 inches.

Now I have not heard the follow up on it yet, so may try to dig up the research and see what they decided to do if anything. Will post an update if anyone is interested.

Thanks

N8ly, the problem with using crappie, in my opinion, is that there are too many questions with them when there are better fish available for forage. Even if all crappie over 6 inches are removed, the crappie left will still just be more predators in a pond that's already predator heavy. They'll be eating the same thing as smalll bass and yellow perch would be. Also, since crappie have a reputation of being inconsistent spawners and there would be no large brood fish, what happens when there are 2 or 3 consecutive years of failed spawns? If there were already crappie in the pond, taking this approach may be worth a shot but I think adding them now would be a shot in the dark. Since yellow perch are already present I think they would be a better option for establishing a forage base as they can be utilized by both species of bass and the walleye. Bluegill or large golden shiners would be a much better option, in my opinion.

vaheelsfan,
What you need to consider though is that in a small pond setting with 100 Walleye per acre as the main predator and 50 LMB per acre we dont care about feeding the small bass. They are forage too. That is a very predator heavy environment that even yellow perch don't stand much of a chance getting established in.

If bass was the main goal than bluegills is an obvious choice for a forage fish that most likely wont need continual stockings. Since walleye is the main predator and the question was asked what about stocking crappies as forage as opposed to continually stocking fathead minnows than what would this pond x have to lose if the crappies didnt spawn successfully for 2-3 years? Than you can keep stocking the fathead minnows and the experiment didnt work for those years.

Golden shiners more than likely will not establish in this predator heavy environment either. It is not easy to establish a forage base in a predator heavy small system. Crappies just may for this instance and with management assistance provide his best shot at achieving his goal of feeding predators in that environment.

This isnt natural balanced management by any means and it goes against common conventional pond stocking wisdom, but I think it can be done.

You are correct, there is a chance it could work. I am just not sure that it has a high chance of success. The pond is definitely preditor heavy, unless there is a reason for so many walleye I think (as was said above by another poster) that removal of some of them would be beneficial. You're also correct about the small bass being foragenow as well, I'm not sure how that's going to be beneficial to the pond long term. I know bluegill aren't the best otpion as forage for walleye and smallmouth, but they're going to be a lot more dependable to produce regularly than crappie. As far as the shiners, how would stocking large, broodstock shiners be different than crappie of the same size?

double post

Thanks so much for all the answers. If I could give you guys some insight on why I am doing this-it might help as well. My goal has always been to have a pond with different varieties of fish-I have expanded from the normal HBG, YP, LMB to include the walleyes (although alot said it couldnt be done in a pond I am just stubborn enough to try)and some catfish. The walleye have done very well-dont get me wrong-they are not huge but are growing and have survivied. I just thought adding crappie could be another neat fish to have in pond and help with feeding the walleye. I just want a pond where my dad and kids can throw a line in and who knows what you will pull out. I kept hearing how much the crappies spawn and knowing that I had a lot of predators in the pond -i assumed that this would be a cheap way of feeding them isntead of always buying fatheads each year. Thanks to all who answered and I will keep you updated on how it goes. I did order 50 black crappies5-7 inches.

Just back to the forum...RE: monster crappie...My neighbors pond is the best fishing I have ever had in my life - period end of story. It is at least a 20 year old pond. Until I started fishing it a few years back, it had not received much fishing pressure at all. It started with catching a lot of sizeable bass (while I have not caught anything over 5 pounds in it, he had a friend of his catch several 10+ pounders which were released back in unharmed. He showed me pond side pictures of them and invited me to put one in my pond if I caught one - which is a nice gesture, but would never do that. While my neighbor told me he never caught bluegill and was not aware that they were in there, that spring I fished shallows with worms and bobbers and caught 9-11 inch BG one after another. I transferred a few of these to my new pond but released most of them - all males.
Then the following year the pond owner told me to use his small boat and paddle to a stump sticking up out of the water. I was with a friend and we were using small rapalas lures thinking we would catch bass, and immediately caught the largest crappie I have ever seen - let alone caught. We had a dozen in the fish basket, nearly every one of them a monster. I called the owner from my cell and told him of our luck and he said "filet some for me!" The smallest were 12 inches. The past couple of years fishing pressure has increased. It's a combination of more friends hearing about how good the fishing is and his grandchildren, etc using it more. Unfortunately, the owner passed away, a good mentor friend of mine, earlier this year at age 80. His wife asked me if I wanted to lease the land and I am now leasing it.

The past few weeks I have caught crappie and bass - mainly to try and determine populations. Last weekend a friend caught a 14 inch crappie from the shore and many more 9-10 inchers. I will try to see what I can catch this weekend and get a picture next to a measuring device. I have not fished at the stump in a couple years - but I know that is where the giants live.

What is the size of the BOW?