Thread: 1st gills from my pond.

Originally Posted by tnpondmanager

I would strongly, strongly recommend not stocking crappie. They are the surest way to ruin a good pond. One of my competitors claimed a few years ago that they had found a stocking strategy that allowed for successful stocking of crappie in ponds; now they're back to recommending to all of their customers that they not stock crappie in ponds. Pretty much the only thing universally agreed upon in the pond world is that crappie are a disaster for ponds.

I agree 100%. Crappie + small pond = ruined pond. I have done many, many extension visits on farms ponds that had stunted bass and various sunfish species. The one common denominator was that they had also stocked crappie. The other big mistake that pond owners make is that they do not harvest enough on their bass and sunfish. As you know, harvest is a must to maintain a good balanced fish population in a pond.

Originally Posted by D10

I agree 100%. Crappie + small pond = ruined pond. I have done many, many extension visits on farms ponds that had stunted bass and various sunfish species. The one common denominator was that they had also stocked crappie. The other big mistake that pond owners make is that they do not harvest enough on their bass and sunfish. As you know, harvest is a must to maintain a good balanced fish population in a pond.

Matt, if harvesting is a must (not just in ponds), why has the AGFC changed the size limit of crappie in Lake Conway to 10"? Seems to me that is just asking for over populated and stunted crappie down the road. Can you explain? Not griping and for sure appreciate all you do for district 10, but just seems counter productive to me.

Originally Posted by ibmack

Matt, if harvesting is a must (not just in ponds), why has the AGFC changed the size limit of crappie in Lake Conway to 10"? Seems to me that is just asking for over populated and stunted crappie down the road. Can you explain? Not griping and for sure appreciate all you do for district 10, but just seems counter productive to me.

Length limits are effective at improving the size structure of a given species if you have good growth and a high rate of harvest (exploitation). Lake Conway has excellent growth (average 10" white crappie is around 1.5 years old) and we estimated the exploitation rate to be around 70% from a tag reward exploitation study. This is one of the highest crappie exploitation rates reported in scientific journal articles. This means that 70% of the crappie that die in a year is due to angler harvest on Lake Conway. So we already have a very high rate of harvest. The 10" MLL combined with with the fast growth will improve the size structure of harvested crappie. In other words, the average sized harvested crappie will be bigger. Sen me your email in a PM and I will send you a report in the topic with more information.

Ponds are different because they often only have a few people fishing them and some pond owners are protective of "their" fish and don't want people to harvest them. This results in stunted fish due to a lack of harvest. I have an Uncle that fits this category. It took me 10 years to convince him that he needed to harvest more fish!