Crappie in a pond

[keyser_soze]

So last year we added another 80 acres to the home place. It doesn't join us but is very close (not that that matters). Anyway, the old owner / family friend said there were crappie in one of the ponds. It's small maybe a 1/2 acre. It's probably 15' deep in the middle. At the most. It's fenced. Cattle can't get in it.

There were crappie in it. I caught probably 15. But they were all 6 - 7 inches. Every fish caught was a crappie I didn't catch 15 in 15 minutes. It took a couple hours. In my mind, I don't think they're over populated or I should've caught a lot more fish. If there are that few all the same size do you think that's a product of the size of the pond? I don't believe there is any cover (sunken cedars etc) in this pond. Do we just need to get a buch of fat head minnows to feed them? Any thoughts?

I'd like to hear any opinions.

[dfar]

That might be a question for the biologist on the MO main page. You could feed them a lot of minnows if you can afford it.

[Joedog]

Crappie in a ½ acre pond? All fish were 6-7"? Stunted.

Fish it heavily. Keep everything you catch, even if it's just to fertilize your garden.

[Speck]

Get them crappie out of that small pond!!!

[catkilr]

you need to get them out, neighbor has same thing 2 years ago I took out 300 6-8 inchers caught none bigger and none smaller if not controlled they will quickly overpopulate and eat everything they can get in their mouth that's why mdc doesn't stock crappie in ponds

[mongo82]

I caught 8 - 10 crappie in a farm pond last year, all where 11", about half acre. Friend of mine has about 3/4 acre pond that we put in 11 and 12 inch crappie and have never caught anything bigger than 6 inch out of ? I've always heard they get stunted when in small body of water, can't figure out why I caught those 11 inchers out of that small pond ? Also tried that pond this year....not one fish.......You know those goldfish you get at carnivals in the little round glass bowls, friend of mine had one, asked me to feed while on vacation, water got dirty so I dumped him in a 10 gallon fish tank, in about a week are so that fish doubled in size..........

[beagle man]

1000 acre. pond for crappie, that is it.

[G.Gordon]

Get them crappie out of that small pond!!!

Exactly!!

[vic n]

Here's what a friend of mine does, but first you will have to kill the existing fish: every spring during the spawn he goes to Watkins Mill (a small MDC lake that is overpopulated with crappie). He may go several times and take 30 each time. The thing is, he only goes during the spawn and ONLY takes the males in full spawning color. He then releases them into his 1/2 acre pond. He regularly catches 14" fish and some even bigger. The key is to never allow a female in there. You would also want to stock the "usual suspects" (lol...the perfect pun!), bass, bluegill, and catfish. You will have to replenish every spring, and you may want to consider using mostly black crappie because they may do better on an insect diet, where the white crappies start eating other fish sooner than the blacks.

[keyser_soze]

I know of several ponds this size with big crappie in it. Why are those ponds different?