to many fish

[dv8tat2s]

OK with allof you self proclaimed crappie gods ,why is it nobody can tell me,if I can fish out the majority of these tiny crappie to cultivate a healthy fish population or do crappie evolve as fast as bluegill and carry the "small gene" for a couple generations.Anyone know??

[J White]

Have no idea, and if I did, with that attitude - I wouldn't tell

[Quackrstackr]

Maybe he's just frustrated by his lack of comprehension or apparent inability to keep the topic to his original thread.


Or maybe his tat2's talk to him and made him do it. :D

[NIMROD]

My guess is thinning would be the first step, second is make sure there is enough baitfish to make them grow.

[CrappiePappy]

OK with allof you self proclaimed crappie gods ,why is it nobody can tell me,if I can fish out the majority of these tiny crappie to cultivate a healthy fish population or do crappie evolve as fast as bluegill and carry the "small gene" for a couple generations.Anyone know??

No one on here has ever proclaimed themselves to be any such thing.
Possibly, no one can tell you because they are not biologists, and/or don't wish to pass on inaccurate information, or simply don't know.

IF you can "fish out the majority of these tiny crappie" ... the surviving population will grow larger. BUT, you will have to continue to thin out the smaller fish, even after the original survivors get larger, simply because they will continue to spawn. If the large Bass, present in the waters, cannot control the Crappie overpopulation, they may need help ... either from anglers or other predators.

Crappie are as prolific as Bluegill, in that they will overpopulate a small body of water rather easily/quickly ... without controls being implemented, such as a high harvest rate or high predation rate. They will cannibalize their own, to sustain their survival, but cannot control their own numbers, alone.

The biomass of the body of water you're fishing, has a finite limit. Only a certain number of fish can maintain their numbers & size, within the limits of this body of water. Too many mouths to feed, means too little food to go around, which means slow growth rates. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the hand sized Crappie you are catching, are more than 3 or 4 yrs old.

There is no "small gene" involved here ... they simply grow as fast and as large as the conditions allow.

... cp

[feelay]

Well put crappiepappy, and I concur.

[coosaman]

Dittos CrappiePappy!

[OKSTATEjiggy]

I guess to a crappie we could be gods because we often draw them towards the light...

[blairarnold]

I agree with crappiepappy, but I think it is virtually impossible to catch enough crappie in an overpopulated pond of any size at all to catch enough to get the population back to where it needs to be to have decent sized crappie. As a practical matter I think you will probablly have to rotenone the pond and start again, stocking the types of fish and the amounts of fish and at the proper times as recommended by your Game & Fish people or maybe even the NRCS. You might want to check with those folks though to see if they have any suggestions that are less draconian.

Ramsey Slough, an old river lake, is right across the bridge from Batesville. It is a public lake with a Game & Fish ramp and has a lot of pressure. The bass are okay, the bream are okay, but the crappie are way overpopulated and stunted despite the fishing pressure. The only thing the Game and Fish Commission people haven't tried is killing all the fish out and restocking, and I think the reason they haven't tried that is because White River floods in there occasisonally and would mess up their efforts with unwanted fish.

[foul hook]

HU! I guess those CRAPPIE GODS that you were looking for have spoken. I heard the thunder.