Crappie question

[snydedawg]

A bud of mine built a pond a few years ago that is about 40+/- acres in overall water. It runs to about 26' deep to just a foot or two on the upper end.

Not long after he had it stocked the water "turned over" killing a BUNCH of the crappie fry and some of the bass.

My question is this, would the survivors be "stunted" in their growth as a result of the oxygen depletion?

This pond has been stocked for about 4 yrs now and all of the crappie that we have ever caught are within an 1/8th of an inch of each other. We have never caught a single crappie that went more than 9"! They are beautiful and usually thich and healthy, but as far as catching true "slabs".... it just ain't happening.

The largemouths seem to have not suffered the same fate. We've caught several as of last year that go in the 4lb range and had one that was closer to five or six, but I dropped it before we could get a good look at it!!

The catfish seem to keep coming on and are as pretty as you could hope for.

Incidentally, the only bluegills we'e caught have all been what I call "pie-plate bullheads" They are HUGE!!! Real huge for bream!! And we've never caught a single small one and don't catch but a few at all!!

There are some of the hybrids too and they aren't very big either.

Is there anything that can be done to improve the crappie other than a restock? And the forage base of minnows is solid. We spent nearly a whole morning last summer late just trolling around looking for schools of minnows and they were every where. So forage base doesn't seem to be an issue.

While we can catch as many as we care to nearly everytime we go there, it would be nice to see an improvement in the size of the crappie!!

[grits and gravy]

If you are catching a lot of crappie on a 40 acre lake, they are probably overstocked. I am not a fisheries biologist, but all of the small ponds that I have fished for crappie had one of two fates. You either caught a lot of small fish or a few big fish, but never both.

[sam]

Biggest trouble with crappie in a pond, even a 40 acre pond, is over population, a fish biologist told me that, first never put crappie in a pond, but if you just have to, stock some flathead catfish in there with them, he said a flathead was about the only thing that can eat a 6+inch crappie is a flathead, a big bass can, but won't unless he just has too because a crappie is hard to eat because of its body shape and spiny fins. I've got a one 2 acre and one 6 acre pond here and in the past you could catch 100's of 4 to 6 inch crappie in both but never one bigger. We put a several flatheads in the 6 acre pond years ago and now 1 1/2 + pound crappie are common, my son caught 10 out of it the other day that would all weigh from 1 1/2 to almost 2 pounds. The 2 acre pond had 3 or 4 flatheads put in it 3 years ago plus some good bass, one over 10 pounds, and it's just now starting to get more in balance.

[CrabClaw]

Thanks Sam for some good information. I need too get a few flatheads soon.

[John Stiles]

Snydedawg....there's two BIG problems with that pond...one; the big crappies never get to see your bait, before one of a jillion little crappies grabs it before it gets down that deep....two; I ain't been invited to fish in that there pond!~john:thumb:

[taxidermydude]

Also, i have heard that it takes 4 years for a crappie to reach slab size even under the right conditions.

[snydedawg]

Sounds like flatheads and time may cure the ills..... well the size problem, hard to call catching crappie an "ill"!!

John... I got a big list of folks with the same complaint, and if it were mine the list would be small and the grins would be large!!! The guy that owns it was always pretty "open" about folks fishing there, until some "SB" yanked his Nissan 9.9 off the john-boat that he left there for folks to use!!!! Now there is a gate going up and a limited invitation to fish it.
It's a shame what a single SB can do to ruin things for everyone else!!!


S=SORRY

[John Stiles]

Sad....but true....one SB is all it takes!:wink:

[snydedawg]

I got a little update on the fishing here. I went with my FIL yesterday and we caught (kept) 68 crappie. Al had a little catch and release problem... he kept dropping 'em before we got 'em in the basket!!!

I guess we caught just as many bass, but they were all really small. The crappie were still all about the same size; but they were a bit larger than last year.... these averaged 10" apiece. Not "slabs' really, but they are pretty dern tasty!!! We cooked a good sized batch last night when we got home, and I still had enough for sandwichs at lunch today!! And we put up a couple of gallon freezer bags for later next week!

I imagine Hill Farm Hunter will want to know when the next ones leave the oil!!

And for what it's worth, I took my kids to my parents cabin today and they ripped the lips off some small bass in their pond!!! Nothing else in the world is quite like the smile on a four year old girls face, when she has an 8" bass on the end of a micro-spin!!!! That was too SWEET!!!

[John Stiles]

That's neat[cool]~j