stocking small pond

[Fishin' Doug]

Hey guys,

Just found this board a few days ago and have gained some good info. I am in Missouri and have been crappie fishing for about 15 years.

On our farm, we have a few small ponds-all around 1 acre. One does not have any fish in it other than a few channel cat. This spring I plan on 'relocating' crappie from one pond into this one. My question is, if I am catching the crappie during spawn, is there any way to know for sure if they have already laid there eggs? This is going to make a big difference on how many crappie I stock into the new pond this spring.

any thoughts on this?

thanks in advance. Doug

[chef]

why not just wait till the middle of june or so, the crappie should have
all spawned in the ponds by then.
just a thought
chef

[TwainGang]

Doug- the best way is to see if they have a "pot gut". If they do, they probably have eggs. Sounds obvious, but that is probably the only way, other than going by behaviour and water temp. If you intend to have them spawn in the new pond and save a year, try to get them early so they can adjust and find a mate. Crappie are more fragile than bass, in my experience, so make the transfer quickly. Let me know if you need any help with the catching part.

[crappieseeker]

You dont have to stock many crappie in a small pond of that size. Most of the time they will overpopulate anyway in a pond that small.

[Fishin' Doug]

chef, waiting until June would definitely take the guesswork out of it.

Along these same lines-I am going to stock another 3/4 acre pond with bluegill to enjoy a little fishing with my neice (and hopefully pull out an occasional slab side for the fryin' pan!) Any thoughts on how many bluegill to initially stock?

I apologize in advance if this is in the wrong forum since it is off the topic of crappie.

[adamr]

doug, try www.pondboss.com. they have message boards with an extensive amount of information on all aspects of ponds. i'm sure you'll find what you need there. good luck.

[TwainGang]

Here is a website that has a bunch of fishery information for Missouri. We used Curryville Fisheries to stock our farm pond. They came out and dumped the fish in themself. They handle black crappie as well as a lot of other species. They can also help you out with the stocking rate.

http://mdc.mo.gov/documents/fish/fishdealers.pdf

[turkeyfootnc]

Doug-N.C. recommends 700 bluegill per acre for a fertilized pond, 350 per acre for an unfertilized pond. They also recommend a few redears(called shellcrackers here). You can do whatever you want but I would stock redears. After a few years, they are a lot bigger than bluegill and a lot of fun to catch. Hope this helps.

[Big George]

I put some in my pond in front of the house and I caught pre spawn and put a couple big females in and about 25 little males I figure that by the time some of the eggs and fry get eat it would be about right I caught 2 the other day on a crank bait that were near 2 lbs

[Fishin' Doug]

Thanks again guys for all the info.
Big George: how can I determine females from males?