Crappie Pond ???'s

[BAMA S]

I have 2 ponds behind my house that are 50 yr proven ponds. I've been thinking about turning the lower pond into a crappie pond. Its about 3 acres and is fed by upper pond which is feed by springs, so I've always have water in it. Anybody have experience doing this? Is this pond large enough? Thnx

[feelay]

Most biologists reccomend 100 acres for crappie. They are prolific spawners and will overpopulate a small pond. There are some non-spawning hybrids that have recently been developed, may look into that.

[IkenI]

A friend of mine has a pond that is about 3 acres. It is spring fed and has lots of willows and cedar around it as well as some brush in it. He raises cattle and it's on about a 200 acre spread in central Oklahoma (rolling hills.) When he bought the place, over 25 years ago, it had some bass and bream in it but he wanted to stock it with Bass, Crappie and Bluegill. He talked to a wildlife biologist about it. The Biologist told him to stay away from the crappie but he put a few in it anyway as well as some Florida strain bass and hybrid bluegill. His grown children and grandchildren fish it and I've fished it once or twice a year for several years. It's loaded with big bass and you occasionally catch a huge Bluegill. I fish it for crappie from a kayak and it has been a consistent producer of many limits of 13-15 inch crappie for me every time I fish it. I've never used a minnow in it and can usually get as many slabs as I want to clean in 3-4 hours. That pond is an exception to the rule about crappie overpopulating the small waters. I am certain it is because the bass feast on a huge amount of small crappie. He doesn't allow others to fish it so it can't be over-fishing that keeps the crappie in check.

[skeetbum]

For small ponds I think Hybrid Bluegill are the best bang for the buck. They grow HUGE!! and don't overpopulate. Check out kensfishfarm.com or something close to that. He has a 5lb'er mounted he takes to presentations.

[captain1175]

I too have fish a 3-4 acre pond (s) and have caught nice sized crappie more than a few times and have heard about the catches since I have been a young boy. I know what the biologist say but I have experienced this too many times, so I would have to disagree or it could just be here in the south. By the way black and white.

[crappieseeker]

I have seen several small ponds get overpopulated, some people just get lucky.

[crappiefarmer]

Got a 5 acre pond that I put 50 crappie in about 4 years ago. This pond already had a lot of bass in it, Some really good size flier and a few pumpkinseed in it as well. After 4 years have gone by, finally have started catching some younger crappie. I was wondering if they were even having successful spawns with all the junkyard dog bass. The pond is loaded with bass about 12 inches long. They are stunted and they eat everything. I am trying to remove about 250 pounds a year to get them back into balance.CF

[Sky Pilot]

I have a @ 1/2 acre pond that has crappie in it, along with several small bass. The crappie were about 7"-9" when we bought the place 5 years ago. I have not caught one under 10" the last 2 years. I have been stocking bluegill the last 2 years also as there were none. Not sure what that is going to do, but sure enjoy catching them.

[captain1175]

Thats the funny thing about nature, you never know

[ronetone]

as long people fish the ponds and keep the crappie population under control shouldn't be much issue of the crappie over running the pond, otherwise yes they can overrun a pond. like most have said the results of stocking crappie in a pond will vary some have success while some will have failure and stunt the other fish size while crappie overrun.