Question about a "slow" pond.

[bytebull]

Hi everyone. I have been fishing this pond in NE Arkansas for about 3 years and mostly caught bass. This spring the bass weren't hitting and my buddy and I changed over to small beetle spins and wam! I caught the crappie pictured below.

I am new to crappie fishing and now I love it. Here is the question. We have crappie fished this pond three times now and it seems like we are doing something wrong. I've been reading up on crappie and I believe the are suppose to group up in schools right?

But... At this pond we might crappie fish for 5 hours and only catch 2 or 3 slab crappie and a couple of very small ones. Even using minnows, small live crawfish, jigs of all colors.

So how do we get on them like some of the stories I've read about where anglers just wear them out once they find the "spot"?

we try all depths, different retrieval speeds, all types of baits but can't seem to get them back to back like I hear can happen.

Any advice?

[Locator79]

You may read about it, but its not always that way. I fish a lake with nothing but stumps for as far as you can see, and it produces a lot of quality fish. But not every stump holds a fish, and you may catch 4 or 5 off one, and it may take an hour or more to find the next stump that holds 5 more. From what I have learned on the water your best chance of huge schools of fish is in the colder months, or in the summer at night. My suggestion is to keep moving and don't sit in a spot too long, catch whats there and move on. You can always come back to a spot in a few hours a pull a couple more out of it. If you can find good structure in deeper water, you have a better chance a getting the numbers your looking for, but always leave a when bite has stopped and come back.

[jcd]

If possible?...Drop some sort of cover in the lake..Pvc, brush pile or whatever...

Jeremy

[CrappiePappy]

... on the size of the pond. Some Slabs, and some dinks, makes me think this pond has a limited number of Crappie in it ... kept in check, numbers wise, by the Bass (but probably only to a small degree). Unless this pond is fairly large, I wouldn't expect there to be much in the way of "schools" of Slabs.

Wildlife biologists tend to favor 10 acre ponds, or larger ... before recommending having Crappie in them. Some even suggest 50 acres is a better option. Now, while some ponds that are much smaller than 10 acres, can & do produce & reproduce Crappie (of a decent size) ... not all of them can/will. Alot has to do with having the proper balance of biomass for the size/depth of the pond.

I believe all those stories you hear about catching Crappie in "bunches", is probably related to fishing a lake or river ... moreso than from a pond. You may not be catching them, in numbers, from this particular pond .... simply because there aren't that many Crappie in the pond, to begin with. If there is no other foodsource, other than the fry & small Crappie & Bass, for the larger survivors to feed on ... there is a chance that they will keep themselves balanced. Any predation, done by another source (anglers), may upset that balance ... or it may help it along. It's hard to say ... but, time will tell.

... cp

[Quackrstackr]

Besides what CP said (which is bang on).... by now, the fish in AR are most likely post spawn (especially in a pond) and spread out all over the place.

[bytebull]

yea it's a small pond ... about 100 yards x 100 yards....that must be it. I won't keep anymore I catch there then, I don't want to mess with the balance and have the crappie die out there.

[Quackrstackr]

Something is keeping them knocked back or a pond that size would be overrun with them by now.

Keeping crappie out of it would not necessarily be a bad thing. They overpopulate and stunt pretty quickly in small ponds.

[bytebull]

Something is keeping them knocked back or a pond that size would be overrun with them by now.

Keeping crappie out of it would not necessarily be a bad thing. They overpopulate and stunt pretty quickly in small ponds.

Well its a deep pond. At least 35 feet deep and has very big Large Mouth Bass in it, I've caught 8lb and 10lb bass there and we catch 2lb to 5lb there consistently. Although I've never caught one there are rumors of it holding some huge blue cats.