Tiny pond + crappie

Caver Dave

Caver Dave

Just holdin' it down here in BFV
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Mar 10, 2005
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Hooterville (24171)
So, our new place has a small spring fed pond (1 of 3, but the biggest) kinda oval... approx. 25' x 45' x 7'deep. Prior to last week, we'd only seen a lone Koi (18"-ish), but since it warmed up a bit... 11-ty zillion little crappie fingerling-4".

Neighbor told me it was "full of 20-30# catfish that we fed for years, but we pulled them out when PO lost the property". Likely they added the crappie to feed the catfish?

I'm not a fisherman, have little desire to manage this pond (other than a potential "Plan Q" food source, which does *not* include crappie). Don't mind swimming with some bigger bass, but getting "nibbled" by crappie won't work... and simply want them gone.

My plan was to add a couple (3-6) 8"-12" LMB (large mouth bass) or HSB (hybrid striped bass) to eat the little SOBs up, then re-stock with HBG (hybrid bluegills = much slower/less spawning)...

But, have read/been told that the crappie are such prolific spawners, a dozen larger bass wouldn't be able to keep up and given the pond size, appears to be way too many?

Several have told me to kill it off (electro-shock or chemicals), but want to save the koi (wife likes it), and start over?

What does the collective think?
 
Take up fishing? Or, I am more than willing to come catch crappie. I eat them and enjoy catching the feisty little ones just as much as the big uns.








Other than that, net the koi and eliminate the rest however you please.
 
JSJJ388 said:
Take up fishing? Or, I am more than willing to come catch crappie. I eat them and enjoy catching the feisty little ones just as much as the big uns.








Other than that, net the koi and eliminate the rest however you please.
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4” crappie don’t do much for table fare


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Divert the water flow. Rent a pump and drain the pond set up a couple 55 gal barrels to put the fish you want to keep in them once it gets down to a foot or so you can use some small plastic netting to push all the fish to one area and the net them out. Unless you drain every inch of the pond and clean all the silt from the bottom you won’t get every single one but you’d get the largest percentage. You could start with a smaller pond and drain it let it dry out a couple days then refill it and then whatever you catch out of the larger ones and you wanna keep move to that pond as a temp. Holding pond to let the others dry out.


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Loganwayne said:
4” crappie don’t do much for table fare


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No, but they do when ya put em in a pond and let them grow!
 
JSJJ388 said:
I am more than willing to come catch crappie
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Should've mentioned that I especially don't want to wait for someone to fish them out either... it's been my experience that fisherman are a fickle bunch and will *always* take the easy path (fish biting "here" vs. driving to my place) :flipoff2:
 
Caver Dave said:
Should've mentioned that I especially don't want to wait for someone to fish them out either... it's been my experience that fisherman are a fickle bunch and will *always* take the easy path (fish biting "here" vs. driving to my place) :flipoff2:
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If the fish are as thick as you say they are, Im going swimmin with a net! :D Aiiinnnnttt nobody got time for waitin on a bite!

Plus, I work in wisnton, so I can come by after work, fish a while and then go home.
 
Throw net, case of beer and a hot day..
 
PAT Ventures said:
dgif.virginia.gov/fishing/private-pond-management/
This might be one of the few times the government is useful. You're paying for it anyway.
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In this case, they're still worthless!
I've contacted them and they will do *NOTHING*, other than "recommend" biologi$t$/fi$herie$ from their approved lists (hyperlinked near the bottom of that page)...
which I suspect is still run by good ol' boy network lobbying (= you slide some DGIF minion a steak dinner for the family, maybe race tickets, stock their personal ponds, etc. and welcome to the list :rolleyes:)
 
Seine net?

I helped do that once for a family that wanted to get rid of all the fish in their pond so their grandkids could go swimming...worked pretty well, but I think they had to get a specialized permit?
 
If you want to try the seine net route, I can ask around for who owned the net & if they'll loan it out...let me know.
 
Is the pond dammed at the end or is it like end of the line and just gets a trickle feeding it?

Maybe you could force some of the fish downstream?

As mentioned, i would catch the fish you want to keep and relocate/store them. Then use a big net/pump to either drain the pond or push the fish out.
 
Lurch830 said:
worked pretty well, but I think they had to get a specialized permit?
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Patrick County is like the wild west... lot's of don't ask, don't tell!

paradisePWoffrd said:
Is the pond dammed at the end or is it like end of the line and just gets a trickle feeding it?

Maybe you could force some of the fish downstream?

As mentioned, i would catch the fish you want to keep and relocate/store them. Then use a big net/pump to either drain the pond or push the fish out.
Click to expand...

Pond is dammed, but the overflow runs off the side, back into the creek... no low point drain that I've found.
Since I want to swim in it at some point, I may divert the flow from the creek, pump it down to get the crappie/save the koi, make sure it didn't become a dump (assorted beverage containers, old cars, Jimmy Hoffa) and then let it fill back up.
The feeder pipe flows about 1.5" ID pipe worth of water 24/7, so shouldn't take long for it to refill...
 
everybody says that crappie will overpopulate in a pond. well at least the white crappie. black crappie are suggested when pond stocking as they don't breed as much as the white crappie? my friend stocked his pond with bass, bream, and shell crackers. his pond is almost an acre. about 2 years after stocking, he added channel cats. I believe that he put in 2 many but did the recommended rate. I believe they have kept all the fish in check, and I believe have almost hurt his pond. I told him to take about half out. you might look at adding about 20 catfish to it for about 2 years? you can feed them dry food and they will be there waiting on you. would be easy to remove after a couple of years.
on another note. I have some land and a 3 acre pond. I trapped 4 otters last year and 1 just last weekend. they eat their weight in fish a day. might could clean your pond out quick. hahaha. it is amazing how much they eat.
as mentioned, I would look at saining the pond and getting rid of the fish that you don't want. where at in stuart is the pond located? :beer:
 
Caver Dave said:
Patrick County is like the wild west... lot's of don't ask, don't tell!
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I'm not saying that's what we would have done, but the net was owned by a family member & the son of the property/pond owner was a Wildlife Officer...we had to have our ducks in a row before stepping foot on the property. Once we had the permit though, we used the net in Rocky River a few weekends later and had some of the freshest fried catfish I've ever eaten!
 
Throw 3 or 4 big flathead cats in there they'll take care of the small stuff then ya know you have atleast that many fat and happy cats to eat later on!!! Crappie fed flatheads are really really good eating!!!
 
C.Berry said:
Throw 3 or 4 big flathead cats in there they'll take care of the small stuff then ya know you have atleast that many fat and happy cats to eat later on!!! Crappie fed flatheads are really really good eating!!!
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Id have thought theyd taste a little crappy...
 
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