Pond crappie

Had an older fishing buddy call me the other day, said he had caught a mess of crappie from his farm pond. He wanted to know if I'd clean em for him, cause they were some good uns' and he didn't want to butcher em up and waste any. Told him I'd be glad to. He wasn't kidding about em being nice fish. He had 21 and 20 were right at 12" or bigger. The other one was 10". They were all black crappie, but what surprised me, when I started cleaning em, 14 of em were black nose crappie. I've only ever caught a few black nose, but he had a whole mess of them. It's a spring fed pond. I've heard that black crappie do better in ponds than white crappie, but is there some reason for stocking black nose crappie?Attachment 260658Attachment 260659Attachment 260660

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I am no biologist but I have heard different ones say that the black nose are a hybrid if so they may not spawn there for they wouldn't over populate.

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Originally Posted by drc

I am no biologist but I have heard different ones say that the black nose are a hybrid if so they may not spawn there for they wouldn't over populate.

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No, those people have told you wrong. Blacknose are simply regular Black Crappie that have a pigment gene that causes the black stripe. They are a naturally occurring fish in at least 20 states.

Black Crappie are stocked in smaller waters because they won't overpopulate & stunt as fast as White Crappie will. Blacknose are used by biologists for stocking many different sized lakes, because they can easily tell the difference between them and the B/W Crappie already present in the lake, from juveniles/fry to keeper adults. That way they can predict spawning capabilities, catch rates, mortality rates, etc. and determine if the lake needs continuous stocking or tweaking of the size/creel limits.

Now, that being said, they CAN and DO crossbreed on occasion ... and when that happens, most or all of the offspring will have the stripe. But the only true non-spawning hybrid is the Magnolia Crappie, but it's only stocked in a few lakes in Mississippi.

Hey, if your buddy needs help getting the population in check at that pond.....i am available with 15 minutes notice....just saying

Those sure are some nice crappie, would love a mess of them.