[Fish_Fiend]

Night Crawlers or Crickets.

Got word that one of my ponds that is slam full of good size panfish is being drained for dam repairs. They told me to clean out everything I could because they are stocking it back with crappie at my request.

If your intention was to catch as many crappie shellcrackers and blue gills as you could in a day which would you use?

 

[ozarks transplant]

i have the secret bait, but can only share in person at this magic pond ...

 

[misterslowride]

Maybe try some sabiki rigs with pieces of red wiggler?

 

[lostnwilderness]

This time of year, fly rod and a small popper. Cast, catch, cooler, cast... Speed and efficiency.

 

[Fish_Fiend]

Im on the fence about a fly set up again. Maybee ill ask for one for Christmas.

 

[ncnat]

I would use crickets for the crackers and gills.

 

[Drum Runner]

Im on the fence about a fly set up again. Maybee ill ask for one for Christmas.

Fly rod, small cork, live crickets....deadly on the bream population.

 

[OptiMystic]

Meal worms or similar grubs. Maggots (you can get them at the pet store for reptiles; clean and fragrance free) are the best. But it is hard to beat a fly rod for efficiency while there are big numbers. When they thin out a little, nothing beats grubs.

 

[Neilslure]

Throw some breado or something in the water and get a feeding frezy going, then use a small hook with a white piece of bacon. They cant snatch that bacon off the hook like they can a worm or bread and you dont have to keep rebaiting.

 

[Swampin']

Considering you need to catch CRAPPIE as well as shells and gils then the only real option as far as live bait goes is small minnows. Crappie will very rarely hit worms or crickets and all of the species love minnows. Catch them yourself with a little net and rig them under a small bobber.

 

[dbeam]

A little messy, but my vote is for crawler chunks. same reason as Bruce suggested the flyrod and popper set-up you can usually slide the bait back down on the hook and get several fish with one chunk.

Fly rod I like white or black spiders as well as poppers.

Darrell

 

[OptiMystic]

Crappie will also hit grubs like nobody's business.

 

[wademaster]

Crappie=minnows under a float
Gills and crackers=crickets/crawlers/red worms

 

[Swampin']

Crappie will also hit grubs like nobody's business.

Didn't know that, I've never fished with them but I'm gonna have to give them a shot now!

 

[wademaster]

Any of your target fish will annihilate some small artificial baits. Sometimes even faster than live bait. It might be worth a try before fooling with live bait.

 

[Mack in N.C.]

I would not put crappies in any pond unless it is at least several acres or bigger......minnows for crappies and catalpa worms for bream.

 

[wademaster]

I would not put crappies in any pond unless it is at least several acres or bigger.......

I was going to mention this earlier on. The only time I've seen crappie do well in ponds as far as gaining size and not completely overpopulating is when they're in the water with some sizeable predators....

 

[Drum Runner]

Most creek fed ponds will do alright if they are established before stocking.
But you can flat ruin a good pond with crappie quick.


I wouldn't do it shooting from the hip. I'd be talking with the county extension office and probably NC State.
They can tell you how it needs to be stagger stocked, how much to stock, and how much needs to be removed on a yearly basis.

 

[Fish_Fiend]

Stocking plan is already payed for. the people that own the land have other things going on here so they must fix the dam. They ask me what to put in it that fish well, taste good and repopulate easily. My first answer was channel cats, they didnt like that answer so I told them crappie with the understanding by year 2 ill have to start keeping several fish per trip there and they were cool with that.

Biggest problem we can see is there isnt a predator that naturally targets crappie. There tendency to be difficult to locate in the water column is what the biologist said. So were gonna drop a couple flat heads in because they adapt to the available food source.

And dont worry WM ill have beetle spins ready.

 

[Fish_Fiend]

Oh and some of my best crappie days have been on crickets.