One thing to remember is that you are balancing predator-prey relationships with any fish you choose to stock. Biologically, balancing crappie populations is unpredictable, as many of you have seen. Some years you may not get any spawn at all, other years you might have, literally, a million babies. It is this unpredictability that leads us to discourage crappie stocking. The other reason we tend to recommend different options is that crappie generally spawn first in a year. After crappie spawn then bass and BLG spawn, this puts an extreme amount of pressure on bass and BLG populations. It is possible to get a BLG spawn very early in a year, especially down south. This may lead to helping manage crappie populations. More study would have to be done on this.
That being said, it is not inconceivable to hear about or work on a small impoundment that has crappie in it. In fact one of the biggest largemouths I have seen in my career come from a small ¾ acre pond that had crappie in it. That LMB was close to 9 pounds.
Basically we are dealing with two top line predators, bass and crappie, as long as populations are balanced properly and steps are taken to manage each population effectively, it is possible to grow large crappie in small ponds. Just like it is possible to grow large LMB in small impoundments. Provided that Habitat, Food Chain, and Harvest are taken care of properly anything is possible.
I challenge anyone to take a large bluegill and a crappie and put them against each other in taste and angling on light tackle. I’ll take a BLG any day. That’s just my opinion though. No science behind that.
