Steve, if I started over I would wait until SMB are in the 6-8" range before adding crawdads. Key is to have suitable habitat to support access AND a portion of inaccessibility for continued production of craws. I didn't think 2lbs of 2" craws would turn into 425lbs removed in 1 year. I have a substantial amount of rock so the craws just did what they do best-survive. If the SMB would have been bigger I think they would have done a better job of hammering the mid size, prolific females. I don't think I would have changed the stocking rates, this was a tad heavier than Bill C recommends but I stocked very small fish of known age so "I" had control of growth instead of buying runts. For instance, if I would have started with, say 8-10" fish that were of unknown age-could be 2yr olds if not properly fed, then a good portion of their lives are used up that can never be gained back and grown into trophy size fish, OR..they could be extremely healthy yr0 fish that had an abundance of feed for the number of SMB present-best case but darn hard to find. those would be 16-20$ each but worth it.
We'll see what next months fall net samples look like and go from there.
jpsdad, is this what you were referring to???
Quote "Warmwater fish reported as detrimental to smallies are: largemouth bass, green sunfish, bluegills, orange-spotted sunfish, redbreast sunfish, crappie, gizzard shad, and bullhead catfish. These fish are hardy and reproduce prolifically then compete for both prime habitat and food... making these fish part of the "problem" managing for smallmouth.
Last edited by Snipe; 09/18/20 10:49 PM.
