Helping Manage Ponds with Crappie

[Gandolf]

Hi All,

One of my coworkers, who is an avid fisherman, and who has read quite a bit on pond management, has told me that he wouldn't put crappie in a pond, because they tend to take over. The ponds have a tendency to overpopulate with stunted crappie. He said it is harder to keep them in balance than with bluegills.

I read with interest Rick's articles on what he does to keep ponds in balance.

The question is, what is different, if anything, about keeping crappie in balance in a pond than keeping bluegills in balance? Anything?

Thanks and regards,

Gandolf

[James Smith]

I am in complete agreement with your friend. Crappie need a very large body of water to maintain a healthy population of good sized fish. When well-meaning fishermen move Crappie to their local small pond to offer more opportunities to catch panfish, they stand a very good chance of ruining the fishery. Crappie are very prolific and their preferred diet of small fish coupled with the size and shape of their mouths limit them to eating small bass and bream. Since most small ponds do not have a large shiner population, that means the bass, bream and other crappie are the targeted food source. I would say that 99% of my fishing is catch and release. The one exception to that rule is that whenever I catch crappie in a small pond, I try to find someone who's keeping fish to give them to. There are several small lakes I fish that are frequented by what I call "bucket sitters". These are the guys sitting on or next to a 5 gallon bucket with four rods cast out as far as they can sling them. When I fish these lakes, I usually pick one of these guys and ask him if he wants any crappie I catch. If the fishing's good, I give him the limit of Crappie and then move to the next guy along the bank. In some ways, I'm trying to control the population of Crappie as much as I am fishing. Crappie + small ponds/lakes = diminishing fishery. Just one man's opinion.

Jim Smith

[FishnDave]

Most fisheries biologists and pond management folks will tell you the pond should be a minimum of 2 acres in size, and preferably 5 acres, before considering stocking crappies in it.

The urban public ponds I fish frequently seem to be in the 2-acre size range. Just my guesstimate, of course. The DNR initially stocks them for the City, with bluegills and catfish the first year, then they add largemouth bass the second year. It appears the City has stocked a few grass carp in most of their ponds for weed control. I don't believe the DNR stocks crappies in these ponds, and yet almost all of them have some sort of crappie population...anything from just a few stray fish, to effectively overpopulated with crappies. MOST of the time, if there are good numbers of crappies, they don't get real big. And the bluegills don't get very big either. These public ponds are further hindered by folks harvesting any bass that reaches decent size, as well as the catfish. This eliminates most of the natural "crappie population controllers" in the ponds.
I can't control what other people harvest from these ponds (and they DO get a lot of fishing pressure), so I release everything I catch. Whatever Rick is doing on the ponds he fishes...seems to be working very well!

[Rick Z]

From all of my reading crappie should not be in small ponds. There are arguemnts as to the size pond that crappie could be in. I have read frrom a minnimum of 30 acers or larger.
I do not return crappie to ponds. I also leave all the bass and most catfish in the ponds. Take a few catfish around 1-2 lbs out in a year, but rarely from the same pond.
Not msany of the ponds will get crappie that go over 10 inches long. I do catch some larger crappie than that in ponds that I have been working on for a long time. Having small bass in the 8 to 12 inch rang eto decimnate minnow populations helps a great deal.
Threw 40 bass from 6 inches to about 3lbsd in a pond four years ago. Fish size has increased as the pond owner has banned he removal of bass.

Rick

[cycler68]

This has been very enlightening for me as I have been throwing back nearly everything I catch including crappie in small ponds. On a side note I've read you shouldn't have northerns in a small pond for much the same reason as you shouldn't have crappie as they target bass when in a pond with bluegill & bass.

[Uncle Jesse]

There is a 25 acre or so private lake back home in north MS. Someone put crappie in it years ago but fishing pressure was very controlled, my brother in law and a couple of his friends gained access to it and a jon boat. When they started fishing for crappie in it they were very plentiful and very small, they removed every crappie they caught, one Sunday afternoon we took out well over 100. A couple of years of fishing the lake regularly, along with a few others and removing the crappie resulted in a much larger fish being caught. Due to the public abusing the privilege the access the lake has been restricted for several years, I will bet you the size of the crappie are back to small fish being the rule again.

Besides, crappie are too tasty to C&R.