Decent Morning (pics)

[fly_freebird90]

Hit the pond this morning with a stringer, ultralight, and beetlespin. I have been "working" on the crappie in this pond for about a year now. 3 years ago, 75 percent of the crappie I caught were 1 or 2 pounders, some bigger. The last two years, its rare to catch one over hand-sized. I have been thinning a little bit over the last year or so and it looks like its paying off. I have been keeping all the hand sized ones and lettting the bigger and smaller ones go. Today, I ran into a school of these ones, keeping 5 and letting a few bigger ones go.

Ross

[Luremaker358]

Great catch, you have more than you would have had, if you hadn't gone fishing. It does me good to just go, know matter were I catch anything or not.

[FishnLine]

Nice looking catch. How big is your pond?

[fly_freebird90]

Thanks, the pond is only about two and a half acres. I also took out 6 bluegill a few minutes ago. I don't want to wipe the pond clean, but thinning it a little is really paying off.

[shipahoy41]

Those really look good. You took a super picture too. Nicely focused and framed. Keep up the great work.

[FishnLine]

With a body of water that small, it looks like you are doing good managing the crappie. It seems most smaller bodies of water produce mostly smaller crappie.

[crappiechappy]

Freebird90......Don't worry about hurting the population. With such a small pond and an established crappie population, I don't think that you can even dent the surface by yourself. In fact, you should probably keep as many of them as possible to avoid the pond becoming overpopulated and stunting the fishs growth. Just my $.02. Nice fish and keep the pics coming.

[Carver]

Nice catch!

[father of 4]

Great pics

[sac-a-lait]

I'm with Chappy. THe more Crappie you take out, the better it will get. I would keep every one of those Crappie you catch no matter the size. I know it hurts seeing him/her die, killin YOUR fish but in the long run you will be better. U say 3 years ago the lake was better, then you stepped in the last year. What do they have to eat? Are there Bass in the pond too?