I recently stocked 50 6'' crappie in two small lakes,about an acre to acre and a half.Will 50 per lake be enough to get them producing?
I recently stocked 50 6'' crappie in two small lakes,about an acre to acre and a half.Will 50 per lake be enough to get them producing?
I would think that would be more than enough IMO.
You might try this link for more info
http://www.crappie.com/crappie/main-...ll-pond-2.html
There are a bunch of questions to be answered to give the correct reply....what is the current status of other species (predator and prey) in the pond? Are these 1 yr old crappie or 5 yr old?....How much will this pond get fished? In the past, all you heard was that crappie will stunt and not do well in a pond...IMO, that is outdated advice..ive seen too many great ponds that have great size, numbers and are sustained through high harvest after they get established....you will get any differing opinins from different biologists, but my quick answer your question if you plan on fishing and harvesting fish is no, 50 is not enough...but however many you put in there...let them spawn once, then start selective harvest....
another question to answer is were these white or black crappie? Whites produce more young and can overpopulate more readily than black crappie. I was involved in some research in a small lake back in the late 80's that always produced nice crappie. The general findings were that over 85% of the crappie (these were blacks) larger than 8" were harvested every year. Crappie can work in small pond if you harvest them heavily. Like Tory said, give them a chance to spawn and then I'd recommend hook and cook fishing for fish over 8". Keeping large numbers of bass in the pond can help keep crappie from becoming too numerous.