Pat, I can add this much from another prospective.. In our smaller state lakes/community lakes where BCP have been a problem, we started introducing Saugeye about 16 years ago. What we found was that in years where hatch was very successful the LMB could not control the crappie and that year class became stunted before year 3 at about 5-6", and stayed that size. The fall samples of BG did not change from 1 year to another per unit effort but the LMB did. LMB sample rates went down in years following the second season of monster crappie hatch.
We have 1 35 ac lake that has LMB, B/WCP, CC, BG, RES, HSB. In 2011 we sampled several Bass for age structure because we seldom sampled LMB over 17". What we found was most LMB under 11" were SEVEN yrs old (most 8-11" fish were the same age). But the lake was full of YOY B/WCP, BG, GSD, GSH and RES. The crappie were stuck at 4-6", yet very high numbers of the other species listed.
Enter the Saugeye..
After 2 full seasons after stocking fry, crappie numbers were lower, sizes represented were more uniform per age structure with fish pushing the 9" mark, and BG numbers remained basically unchanged per unit sampled but size structure changed with some 8"+ BG showing up.
In the following year fall sampling we found LMB showing up in good numbers from 12-15" that had not been present before in any numbers. The crappie continue to grow, BG have been very steady and we have some true giant Saugeye in this impoundment.
This has been in the hands of many of the State's smartest folks and nobody has a good explanation as to why the LMB were not growing prior to the Saugeye introduction to control the abundant B/WCP. Was it suppression?? I'm not sure, but some things happened that were unplanned to say the least.
One would think 4-5lb bass would hammer crappie at the stunted sizes we've seen but every time we have seen stunted crappie, the LMB are absent both in number and size. One could assume reproduction was suppressed by crappie, yet none of the other species present proved that to be true.
This is why I hesitate to recommend a fix to get your crappie back because I don't feel I'm qualified or knowledgeable enough to do so. I'm loving the interactions here though.
