Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Crappie Missing

I have a 12 acre lake. This is the 3rd season we have had it. Nearly 20 year old lake. It had Crappie, Bass, and Bluegill when we got it. Harvesting was light when we got it, so had plentiful crappie and lots of stunted bass. We have been working on harvesting of the bass to try to get their size up. I added 2 feeders this spring. I also added 1000 8-10" catfish. The lake was originally stocked with catfish, but they all died off by the time we got the lake. All of the sudden, we are no longer catching Crappie. There would be periods of the year where we would catch a crappie with nearly every cast. We are literally not catching any.

Primary fishing spot is off a dock, and the depth is 20'+ right off the edge of the dock. Historically, we would only catch crappie and bluegill off the dock. We catch bass fishing the banks, or from boats staying close to the banks. If you try to fish the dock now, you don't catch much of anything unless fishing close to the feeder. I have one feeder on the dock, and the other is 400' away from that on the dam. The dock is 3500 square feet. I fished from kayak yesterday, and didn't catch a crappie no matter where I went on the lake. I thought I could have just scared them away from the dock with the feeder and the catfish feeding there, but puzzled as to why I can't catch them anywhere on the lake. I am thinking about doing an electrofish survey in the spring to see what my issue is. We have another pond on the property, and I fished it yesterday and caught lots of crappie. With the crappie missing, it make it feel like we have no fish when strictly trying to fish off the dock. Anyone else have thoughts?

It would be hard to believe that all the crappie just 'disappeared.'

What kind of water temps are you seeing?

Thanks for the response. I am not noticing discernable temp change from previous years. My guess is that current temp is 80 degrees. The crappie fishing is generally strong in the spring, light in the summer, and then good in the fall again. The next couple of weeks will be telling. The crappie have been pretty good in the past in late August. Thinking about turning off the dock feeder to see if I just scared them off.

Electrofishing is not going to roll anything deeper than 5-6' this time of year. Call a firm that uses Fyke nets for the survey, that's a better way to get an idea on Crappie