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Thread: White Crappie Management Advice

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
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    Iowa
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    Default White Crappie Management Advice


    I have a 2.5 acre pond in Iowa and it has lots of white crappie, largemouth and catfish in it. The pond is 21 feet at the deep end and still has lots of standing timber from when it was originally flooded 25 years ago. It was stocked years ago and the previous owner hardly ever fished it or did anything to the pond. I only just bought this land/pond in March and so far, I've taken just over 160 white crappies out and they have all been around the 7" size. The other strange thing is that I have yet to catch a male fish, all of the fish have had roe sacks in them? Can anyone give me advice on how to manage these fish as I enjoy the crappies more than anything else in the pond (also, wondering why I can't catch the males? I've been using crappie jigs and countdown Rapalas). Lastly, I've been feeding the fish bodies to the cat fish after I've filleted them, I cut them up and the cat fish love them, is this a good idea? Thanks!

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2004
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    Sounds like a common problem for alot of small ponds, the crappie will overpopulate most small pond and will not reach great lengths or will be very thin. Crappie are very aggressive and maybe the females are trying to feed up on whatever they can find to eat. Seems odd that you have not caught atleast a few males though

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
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    tn
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    rotenon the pond and start over. DO NOT put crappie back in the pond when you restock.

  4. #4
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    Dec 2009
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    Your fish are stunted from overpopulation and you need to have a good culling. Keep everything you catch and don't throw anything back alive, after a few years you will see improvement.

    The abundance of female fish may be caused by the overpopulation, there may only be a few males.

    Feeding your catfish is ok and will make them bigger.

    Most states DNR will evaluate a private pond and tell you what you need to do to improve it, contact them.

  5. #5
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    Jan 2007
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    batavia twp, ohio
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    A friend of mine had a nice pond with some decent sized crappie but he has alot of good size predator fish (bass & catfish) which help keep the crappie in check. I agree with GCD just keep the pressure on them and don't let anyone remove the large predators. All good lakes need balance.

  6. #6
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    May 2007
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    Keep everything you catch except the big fish, IE bass over 3 lbs, big crappie, ect. It's hard to manage a small pond with so many different fish...It'd be best devoted as either a crappie, bass, or catfish pond IMO with a good supply of bream for food.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
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    Iowa
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    Thank you everyone for your great advice, I'll continue to take as many out as I can then until the population is in check. Looks like there's going to be lots of fish frys in my future.

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