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I have several farm ponds around my house that I have access too. I usually catch a lot of bream a few bass and catfish. Specks that I catch are for the most part are dinks(small). One of these ponds is fished regular and still all these specks are dinks. I caught several hundred over the course of the last few years and fried them up for the neighbors to eat. I am just looking for opinions on what is going on with these ponds??
Crappie and small ponds are a bad mix. The small crappie you are seeing is typical.
I agree with disco, it is very hard for crappie to do well in ponds. I believe most management people say not to have crappie in a pond. I think the balanced ponds have bream, bass and catfish. I have fished a few ponds that did have some nice size crappie but I don't know the dynamics that made that possible and they were very big ponds. It also might have been that I fished it during a short period of time that the crappie were going to flourish.
Been there, done that.
Crappie in SMALL farm ponds does not work as they will over populate in three years. I have seen them stocked in 20+ A ponds and it does work if you have high numbers of Bass AND you fish for them often.
Small 3-5 A ponds with crappie WILL cause you to drain, kill, and restock.
Keep everyone single crappie you catch in those ponds. That would be a great place to take kids fishing. It can be non stop action.
Thanks for all the input!! Mr Earl I have thought about having a fishing gathering for all the kids in the community.
That would be a great idea. Remember shallow water ponds cool down and warm up sooner than deep reservoirs. Shallow ponds will have their spawn very early.
I have questions about that if you fish it hard and add fat head minnows are some kind of small bait fish would that help make the crappie larger?
Not sure we have been fishing this one pond hard for about three years and has not made a difference in the size
The lake I fish is approximately 25 acres swallow I say average 5.5 ft with a 4acre 13 ft hole in the middle and over the last 3 years I have improved the fish size by 2 to 3 inches witch the average size is 11 in. Thinking about try to put fat head minnows in just too see .just looking to see if anyone thinks it would help my quality of crappie?
Put some florida strain bass in there and they will grow in a hurry . (the bass ):biggrin
Attachment 226579Attachment 226580Attachment 226581Attachment 226582Attachment 226583Attachment 226584Attachment 226585Attachment 226586Attachment 226587Attachment 226588Attachment 226589These fish came from a private pond stocked 10 years ago.This pond /small lake is about 5-6 ac. Full of bream,catfish,bass and a few crappie.It is well balanced.think this is the key to managing a small pond/lake.We also put structure throughout the lake (tires,Boobuckets,pallets)something for the fry/small bream to hide.Not big crappie but good eater's.