Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Hybrid Stripers vs. White Crappie

I have a 1.25 acre farm pond in Kentucky. I stocked the pond in October of 2022 with 1000 standard Bluegill, 50 Channel Catfish, 200 LMBs and bags of Fathead minnows. I have been feeding the fish with a timed feeder since last summer. This spring, I began sample fishing the pond and started catching White Crappie to my surprise. Obviously, they were in the pond and I didn't know it. I have also been catching Bluegill and Channel Cats. I have not caught a single LMB yet. I consulted with a pond management company and we decided, short of killing off everything, to stock 20 twelve inch LMBs to help clean out the Crappie. I stocked them about five weeks ago. In addition, I am keeping all the Crappie I catch. Not sure if this will help control the Crappie. I saw a post on Facebook about Crappie control and the poster suggested stocking some hybrid Striped Bass as another means to control the Crappie. My pond management guy suggested adding about twelve Hybrid Stripers if I want to go this route. I have lots and lots of baby Bluegill as forage and I could stock some more Fathead minnows if need be. I am inclined to do so. Any thoughts? Also, if I can get the White Crappie under control, I would consider stocking some hybrid Crappie. Anybody had any luck with these? Thanks in advance for any advice. I am relatively new to pond ownership.

General rule of thumb I have seen on FHM and stocking after the pond is growing forage via BG is that the FHM aren't really needed. While it doesn't hurt the pond the return on them with additional forage via spawns is very limited so the fish you put in are basically just a snack for the existing residents of the pond.

There was a post about where the crappie go after hatching and I think that it mentioned they move out into the pond not on the edges. This would seemingly put them in the same zone as the HSB. I don't have any experience with this though. I would definitely defer to one of the more experience fellas here for sure.

Thank you for the information.

I made a post a while back having to do with RW of HSB vs LMB, it was observed that the HSB only ate feed and crawfish out of a certain pond and no small fish were observed, with that being said, HSB may not be the answer to crappie control. I bet sone walleye or saugeye may be though

To me, it's surprising how small a large HSB's mouth gape is...as such, we are all wondering how much they control bluegill populations, let alone crappie.

I would doubt that none of the original (200) LMB survived.

Regardless of the survival/or lack thereof, I see no issue with adding (20) 12" LMB.

I agree since I have not caught the first LMB. I have not caught any of the 20 - 12 inch LMBs I recently added nor do I want to yet. They should have plenty of Bluegill forage as my Bluegills are reproducing well. Hopefully, they will help clean up some of the smaller Crappie.

Have you used natural bait for the LMB?

Fish eating habits really intrigue me, You have the post above where he hasn't caught a fish with whatever method he has used.
I can walk out on my dock, where the fish have all the natural forage and supplemental feeding they can handle and I can pick every species out at will on any lure I throw.