How long does it take a lake to come back?

[Atimm693]

I was told by a biologist in TN that crappie in a pond under 100 acres would overpopulate and be stunted, lots of little fish and few big ones.

Depends on the crappie and a lot of other factors. Black crappie are not as prolific as white crappie.

Neighbor has a 4 acre pond with some dandy black crappie. Not stunted at all. Unfortunately they have been a little overfished, everyone keeps crappie and throws the green fish back, so the crappie fishing hasn't been as good lately, but you can catch as many 12" bass as you want.

Ponds are a delicate balance and are easily swayed one way or the other, one thing for sure is to keep the fishing pressure on them, it's better to have fewer big fish than a million dinks, and don't cherry pick just one species.

[bigdoug03]

I was told by a biologist in TN that crappie in a pond under 100 acres would overpopulate and be stunted, lots of little fish and few big ones.

I have heard the same. I was worried they would not put crappie back in the lake, but I found a press release that confirms they did stock black crappie since the fish kill.

[Alphahawk]

TWRA will not even stock a 360 acre lake with crappie. The Williamsport Lakes....biggest is about 60 acres.....was stocked by fisherman with black nose crappie. While the lakes have huge food source.....tons of Shad....it took forever for the crappie to get to 10 inches. Even after all these years of them being in there they are not the length or girth they should be. If you get a chance to fish a lake that has been closed down for the 4-5 years to recover by all means take it. For a year or so the fishing will be off the charts.

Regards


Sent from my iPad using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

[dbowling]

more then likely in that small of a lake the IN DNR wont stock crappie, as said 100 acres is about as small as they will usually stock Crappie..

I retract this if you say they restocked with crappie, never heard of them doing this in that small of a lake.

[bigdoug03]

more then likely in that small of a lake the IN DNR wont stock crappie, as said 100 acres is about as small as they will usually stock Crappie..

I retract this if you say they restocked with crappie, never heard of them doing this in that small of a lake.

There were pretty decent crappie in there before the fish kill. There were a lot of shad in the lake too, another species that you often hear should not be in smaller lakes. Getting rid of the gizzard shad was one of the reasons for the fish kill, I'll be interested to see how the crappie do in the lake now with no shad available for forage.


DNR restocks Ruble Lake in Fowler Park with over 4,000 bass, more to come next week