Interesting read...

[IkenI]

I borrowed from a posting on the Texas Fishing Forum.

Louisiana Fisheries - Fact Sheets

[OK Toon]

Interesting article -- thanks for posting.

[IkenI]

I found the part about Crappie populations and yearly cycles of interest.

[crappiepappa]

Good read

[Crappie ciller]

Interesting article. I have had a consistent population of 1 lb. black crappie in my 1 acre pond for 15 years. I do stock breeder sized pond shiners frequently and feed a lot of small bass to my pet vulture.

[IkenI]

I have a friend who has a 3 acre spring fed pond with a consistent population of 9 -13" black crappie. He also has a good amount of 6-8 lb Florida bass and large bluegill. He has no catfish in this pond but another full of whiskers. We rarely catch small bass there. His crappie have routinely had a cycle of 2 years fat and healthy followed by one year of being thin. Been going on for years. I'm not certain how this applies to the study but it is a very consistent pattern. Last year was a thin year - this year is good.

[Crappie ciller]

I have to admit mine go thru fat and thin years too but I never noticed a pattern but I will be looking for that now. Thanks Iken. I love hearing about ponds and crappie. Thinking about digging another one and dedicating it to BC and forage fish.

[cricket george]

stock LOTS of fatheads and let them spawn for 2 years w/o predators then put in the BC

[Crappie ciller]

Will the fatheads survive and spawn in a 10' half acre spring fed pond?

[cricket george]

ABSOLUTELY!! Suspend several shipping pallets in the water column with ropes and a float and they will spawn in between the boards. I poisoned a 1/4 acre pond and stocked with a gallon of rosies. 2 years passed and no explosion of bait?????????????? then I found a few crawdads in the pond which led to trapping for crawpappies. I had a s**t load of 3" dads and I determined that they had been canabalizing my rosies eggs. Therefore I suspended their spawning structure to eliminate the crawdads from climbing into the pallets and eating the eggs. Works You can also put a bunch of trees and brush in to add spawning structure.