I've been easedropping for about the past year, this is my first post. The neighbor's pond is deminishing in bass and the crappie are on the rise. The pond is only about 1-1/2 acre, so we decided the crappie needed to go. I have recently purchased a 2 wt. and went out after church this afternoon and had some fun. It was a nice outing, the sun was out and the wind wasn't blowing.

I have enjoyed the TFF especially the fly fishing and kayaking forum. I also had the pleasure of making a trip to the White River (Gaston's Resort) in early October. That was a good time also.

Nice bunch of crappie! Welcome aboard!

First and do tell us more about this pond

Welcome aboard! Looks like a good afternoon at the neighbor's pond. Looking forward to more reports.

sounds like you know the ropes. welcome

Glad you popped up and posted. Those crappie and that two weight are a fine combination for fun!

Welcome Baby Huey! I invite you to the next Brazos Valley FlyFishers meeting Thursday January 13th 2011 7PM @ Gander Mountain lodge.

welcome to the forum but sounds like they are wanting to ruin the perfect pond to me.

Getting those crappie out will improve things. Crappie can take a heavy toll on a small pond from what I've gathered at some small pond management seminars. They spawn earlier resulting in crappie fry consuming the smaller bass and bluegill fry that come later. Over time this negatively impacts bass size and resultantly crappie size as there are simply too many.

I can understand thinning them out because of the possibility of stunted growth but i sure wouldn't try to completely rid them.

Agreed. And I am no pond manager so won't attempt to preach about it as one. But I have seen a few small ponds that were jammed with tiny, stunted crappie.

I am sure that proper management techniques can produce a flourishing pond of sac-au-lait

i noticed that there were white crappie on the stringer and that is not good, only black crappie should be stocked in ponds due to slower growth and spawning rates. white crapppie lay more eggs and often spawn twice a year, they should only be stocked in ponds of 100 acres or more. not to mention that white crappie have bigger mouths, and get bigger, so they can take a huge dent out on the food that bass like to eat.

Yes, I agree about the black crappie being better for a pond, than white crappie. Their numbers need to be kept fairly low for the bass to take a hold, if that is what you want. I love crappie though, my favorite warm water fish to eat.

Managing the pond would be difficult, it is in a flood plane and whenever it floods there is a creek that runs into the pond. There not much telling what all is in there. I use to catch some nice bass regularly on conventional tackle. I have even caught a couple of 3#ers on my 5wt. I know that there bass, crappie, channel cat, bream, google eye perch, and shad in this pond. Makes for pretty interesting fishing at times.

The pond is called the "Bubba Pond". In the Bubba Pond is the "Bubba Yacht". The Bubba Yacht used to be a floating dock, but a new dock was built and a motor mount (for a trolling motor) was installed on the floating dock hence the Bubba Yacht was launched. The Bubba Yacht is about 6' X 8' and makes an ideal fishing platform, it keeps me out of the trees on the back cast.

The property owner has a small group of friends, myself included, that meet there one night each week for Bubba Night. Therefore we are all Bubbas. We decided to get "official" and we call ourselves "The Society of Bubba's", I'll let you figure out the acronym. Out of all the Bubbas, I'm the the only one who fishes the Bubba Pond, and it's within walking distance(oh darn).

Slightly O.T., but I lived for three years on a six acre lake near Chicago that had been stocked, in the past, with bass, white crappie, bullheads and grass carp. No sunfish, for some reason. By the time we moved there, the grass carp had been in for about 15 years and were huge. And the crappie, as predicted, were overpopulated and stunted. It was a catch and release lake, so no harvest allowed (or desired, given how much fertilizer and other lawn products flowed into the lake).

But those crappie made for some fine sport on a light flyrod or ultralight spinning outfit. I had a canoe on the lake and would go out three or four nights a week in the summer. I had one night when I hooked or caught a crappie on every cast for over an hour.

Then there was the time I was using the ultralight and a small spoon for crappie and hooked one of the grass carp....

45 minutes later, I landed him/her. 25.5 lbs on four pound test line.