Ever see this type of turnover?

[hnd]

i have a pond that i fish. its a small borrow pit that was used to build a water treatment plant that is next to it. it also is considered a mississippi backwater and a creek connects it to the mississippi a mile or so away.

the year i discovered this pond i was catching 11-13" crappie regularly out of it some smaller but mostly all big. the next year i noticed we were only catching smaller ones. 5-7"ers. a few big ones but it was 90% 6" fish and 10% 11-12". no in between AT ALL. the next year, no big or smaller fish, all 8-9"'ers ( i assume these were last years 6-7" fish). the next year 10-11" fish. the next year 12-13" (2 years ago). literally last year it was 5-7" fish and last night i get out for the first time all year to fish it and its 8-9" fish.

obviously occasionally i'll catch a smaller one here or there but as for large fish that seems to be the trend and i've never seen it before on any other body of water.

i figure big fish eventually feel crowded in(?) and make their way into the creek and then out to the river.

the pond is not stocked. water is usually very clean, becomes covered in algae, and has also a large population of bass that range from small - 8-9lbs, bowfin that range from 2-9 lbs, slab bluegills, and a few pike, sauger, walleye, carp and other fish that get caught when it floods occasionally.

[Kman]

ANY body of water, (that is healthy) has 4 good years and 3 bad years in a run of 7 total years. Might be 2 good, 3 bad and 2 good, might be 3 good, 1 bad, 1 good, 2 bad, But on average, you will see 4 total good years and 3 bad years for crappie in a 7 year period on any healthy lake. Crappie tend to regulate themselves sometimes during spawns, water levels, weather, whatever, you aint gonna have 7 banner years in a row. You may be experiencing that to some degree. For instance, when crappie have that "bad spawn" it really eliminates an entire age class of crappie, almost skips them. Each body of water will have a limit to how big those fish can get too. (outside of the occassional freak). But lets just say for arguement sake that at peak growth, that fish will get to 2.8lbs. That takes (depending on the body of water) 6 to 7 years. Now, they can live to be 10 or 11, but wont get much bigger depending on genetics. Food is almost irrelevant, they either have enough to eat or they dont, its genetics that determines ultimate size. Most guys dont realize how LONG it takes a crappie to reach that max size limit, most guys think they dont live that long. Most guys are wrong.
So if you have a small pond and you have 2 good years of HAMMERING the larger fish...AND you had a couple bad spawns a few years prior, well, those age class of fish that SHOULD be replacing thos big ones you been catchin...aint there. Not so noticeable in say...Grenada Lake, REAL noticeable in a small barrow pit.

Most of this I got from a guy that developes ponds for a living and wrote his thesis at the University of Auburn on crappie. Hes a great guy to talk to about this stuff. He runs Southern Pond Management.

Of course I dont know for SURE this is what is happening to you, just thought it might be a possiblity. Lots of factors witih crappie and ponds. Good luck.

[kingkrappie]

Interesting stuff, how do I get a copy of that thesis?

[Eager Beaver]

My lake has a 4 yr cycle. 2 really great years and then a lean year and then like this year where it takes 10 Crappie to get a keeper (10 inch). Someone decided last year that the Crappie were getting fished out so cut the possession limit in half and we can only keep 15 Crappie this year. I am afraid that this will mess up the ratio of Crappie and will result in over population of Crappie and will detract from our fantastic creel count we have had for many years. EB

[hunt4crappie]

Interesting stuff, how do I get a copy of that thesis?

Auburn Thesis Search

This link I found only gives the Abstract of some of the Thesis written at Auburn on the crappie. Not sure if the one mentioned is part of this list. Also not sure how to get the entire Thesis, but this may be a start.

[Kman]

not sure on reading the actual thesis. I had him explain it to me on the phone (which I thought was much better! LOL!)

Call southern pond management and speak to scott. He LOVES talkin crappie