Thread: Put in charge of 210 Acre Lake- I know nothing about Crappie- Need your Magical Minds

So the lake has no stream or creek running into it...correct? ARE YOU IN THE UPSTATE?
Being a spring fed only lake, you would have the lack of nutrients issue...which is the basic building block for most systems.
Plankton, small fry, minnows/baitfish, and shad of all kind, need this basic food to prosper.
Luckily, there are things you can do to remedy this...since that is an awfully big lake, you would be best served to talk with pond builders or someone from the SCDNR...they can help with what you need...if you have some vegetation, you might not need to much, but they will have to check water quality, etc.
As others correctly suggested, you have to know what is going on with the water before you can fix it.

The other issues are too many predators and lack of food...you have no cover for fry, minnows, baitfish and they cannot get a foot hold and are consumed quickly...all you have left are fish that can't eat each other...except for the blues which should be huge.
The first cover you will need is dense laydowns in the shallows for minnows, etc...massive amounts of Christmas trees, tightly packed boo, or other dense CHEAP cover will be needed...Once you get this done you can start building the forage base...that's why you need to strengthen the water, so the forage has food and hiding places.
If you have a good population of Blues, they should be helping eliminate larger panfish that the Bass can no longer eat....once you get the dense cover in...you will need to figure out your "cull" size of Crappie and Bream and take out that size for a year...you may have to also take out a certain amount of stunted Bass.
All you are doing is creating a food heavy environment until BALANCE is restored.
Then you can start adding all your other cover for smaller Crappie to hide and grow in.
You, my friend have a BIG PROJECT...if you do it right, YOU WILL HAVE A WONDERFUL FISHERY.

I made a post to here about what I thought that he could do to see what would help him with the lake. I dont have a clear as crystal ball as everyone else on here that has diagonised his problem from a couple of short paragraphs. No where does it say that the fish are stunted only that he saw a lot of 3-5 inch bass and bluegill which you always see in the shallows . Crappie fishing is not as good, he states they are hybrid crappie which means they cant reproduce if the are, so that would mean decreased numbers not overpopulation and stunted. It sounds like there are some HUGE bass in there so they arent too stunted. As far as the fertility of the lake, try going to Minnesota or Canada sometime, those lakes have no run off and if they do the ground is so poor, (nothing but sand and rocks) that there is no nutrients running in those lakes either and they are clear for 20 feet deep and have more big fish in there than you could catch in a lifetime. By his post the fish are already stocked,and not much left to help him out with so no need to confuse him. I would like to see a pic of the lake to see what it looks likes around it as he said they cut the trees down so there should be a lot of tree tops. And like all good fisherman, the 2 or 3 that are catching a ton of fish they are telling him they arent catching nothing. Just my worth.

I see you're in Aiken County...been to Aiken a couple times...does the Edisto or Savannah feed the springs in the Wagener area?? Does the lake stay full during dry spells?
I lived in Greenville and had stream fed and spring fed lakes, each pose different problems...yours will be the easiest to correct because the biggest problems arise from too much nutrients and then you get blooms and other bad stuff...I think you can even stock shrimp, if you have the right vegetation. ..and if the lake is built right, and you have a natural crawdad population you can increase their populations as well with the block/brick piles.
Right now you just have a bunch of fish swimming around all day trying to eat anything they can and not be eaten. The lack of cover doesn't allow many of them to grow....I would keep all the baitfish cover natural and then try to get as much stuff free or cheap and make permanent stuff for the larger fish so you only have to do it once...like Lowell said you can find wood that lasts a long time or untreated lumber or pvc and plastic...to be honest, if you are doing this by yourself...it's gonna take awhile!

You are correct that he needs to check on a few things...but this is common in that area.
The difference in the clear waters of the Glacial North is that they have healthy baitfish populations which reduce predators preying on each other...like our home lake here, the shad population is huge and all the predators key in MAINLY on them.
In most Southern small lakes or ponds, they always thought bream would be that food source for bass..when they want to add Crappie etc...they don't have enough food for all the mouths. Bream get too large too fast and can only be consumed by a BIG fish...but you have a huge cycle in these lakes. A couple of my friends have mountain ponds that were clear and was able to bring the nutrients load up enough to get threadfin shad to survive and this along with minnows have turned them into Very nice fisheries.
In lakes like he is talking about, it will cycle badly...when the few large bass die, they NORMALLY will be left with 1 "slot" that is the max for growth...once all of that years spawn of bream etc is eaten, then they starve until the next spawn..the bream are probably putting a hurtin on the fry from the bass and hybrids etc too. Fish in the south don't live as long as up here anyway because of the high metabolism. Right now the BIG BASS and BLUES are probably the only things eating throughout the year. If you have that much vegetation you may be good on nutrients....they will help clean water also.
AND AT 250 ACRES...I would go with Black Crappie..if you want to keep alot of the bream...if not go with whites, they'll reproduce more and eat more of the bream also...you do this right and you may never have to stock fish again.

Originally Posted by clfarms1

I made a post to here about what I thought that he could do to see what would help him with the lake. I dont have a clear as crystal ball as everyone else on here that has diagonised his problem from a couple of short paragraphs. No where does it say that the fish are stunted only that he saw a lot of 3-5 inch bass and bluegill which you always see in the shallows . Crappie fishing is not as good, he states they are hybrid crappie which means they cant reproduce if the are, so that would mean decreased numbers not overpopulation and stunted. It sounds like there are some HUGE bass in there so they arent too stunted. As far as the fertility of the lake, try going to Minnesota or Canada sometime, those lakes have no run off and if they do the ground is so poor, (nothing but sand and rocks) that there is no nutrients running in those lakes either and they are clear for 20 feet deep and have more big fish in there than you could catch in a lifetime. By his post the fish are already stocked,and not much left to help him out with so no need to confuse him. I would like to see a pic of the lake to see what it looks likes around it as he said they cut the trees down so there should be a lot of tree tops. And like all good fisherman, the 2 or 3 that are catching a ton of fish they are telling him they arent catching nothing. Just my worth.

I wanted to update everyone because of all the great feedback I received and answer some of the questions You all have asked.

The small stream off of the Edisto River does flow into our lake. We the HOA control the level of the lake so there has never been a concern of the lake level. Every 4 years the lake is dropped five feet in December so people can work on their Docks and kill some of the weeds.

There are 2 coves on the lake covered with Small and large Lilypads, and they cover roughly 3-5 percent of the total surface area. The shore line also has weeds randomly. Underwater there are a good amount of weeds in the coves where the small fry can try annd hide from the Pickeral (Jackfish) and Bass.

If you google Edisto Lake, Wagener SC you can see the lake.



Although I could not stop the stocking of our lake, I was able to stock Black Crappie rather than the Hybrids that were put in the lake 6 years ago.

The following is a list of fish that were stocked last week.

25,000 2-3" inch Bluegill
2,000 4-6" Bluegill
15,000 2-3" Shellcracker
2,000 4-6" Shellcracker
250,000 Fathead Minnows
10,000 Black Crappie
1500 2-4" Largemouth Bass


I have sunk:

- 2 sets of Pallet Pyramids in 14-18 feet of water for the BG,Shellcracker, and Bass
- 3 Crappie Stake Beds- single pallet with boards screwed to the insides and sides for the Crappie and BG and Shellcracker in 8 feet of water
- 3 Bamboo Condos 12 feet high in 18 feet of water

I have 6 single pallets covered with 1/4" mesh screening I will sink in 2-4 feet of water fo the Minnows to hide and hopefully spawn

I am receiving pallets on a weekly basis so there will be plenty more to sink. Are Pallet Pyramids better than Crappie Stake Beds?
We will be collecting Christmas Trees right after Christmas to sink in the shallower waters for the fry to hide.

As Intimidator said, I think if we can get more cover in the lake for the Fry to survive, it may be one of the better things we do.

Thnx

You're going great with the cover....Pallets are great for minnows and fry and for minnow spawning....Stake beds are more shallow water cover! Work your baitfish cover first!
The Fatheads may help until the spawns when more food will be available...look into another forage base, this is from the DNR of SC. It's pretty impressive when fishery managers say this about a baitfish! (see Last paragraph)



Description: (Anatomy of a Fish)

The threadfin shad has bluish gray on its upper side that fades into a silver side and belly. There is a prominent purple to black spot on the upper side of the body just beyond the operculum or gill flap. The caudal fin tends to be yellow. A distinguishingly long dorsal fin ray occurs at the back of the dorsal fin.

Range: Statewide in large rivers and reservoirs

Average Length: 2-3 inches

Average Size: 1 ounce

Life Expectancy: Approximately 4 years

Preferred Habitat

The threadfin shad inhabits larger rivers and reservoirs primarily, but it is also found in brackish water.

Food Habits

Microscopic plants and animals by filter feeding with their gill rakers which function like a strainer catching food.
Spawning

Threadfin shad spawn from April to July in shallow shoreline areas, between dawn to sunrise over submerged plants or other objects. The eggs sink and stick to various substrates until they hatch.
Miscellaneous

The threadfin shad is considered by most fishery managers to be the single most important prey fish in South Carolina’s reservoirs. Although the threadfin shad occurs in all but the coldest of the state’s waters, they are most productive in large impoundments. In these impoundments, the shad rarely lives past one year, and during that time it grows no more than three or four inches in length. This makes it an ideal sized food item for all advanced predators.

Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Division. 2009. South Carolina Guide to Freshwater Fishes.

"The threadfin shad is considered by most fishery managers to be the single most important prey fish in South Carolina’s reservoirs"

I guess I better research on where I can buy some threadfin shad. Maybe by the time the Spring is here, I will have a good start on creating more cover and then I could find some shad

Thnx

Did anyone mention that crappie do not consume many hard ray forage such as bluegills? They will thrive on soft ray such as minnows or shad.