I have a pond (roughly 2/3 acre) that I stocked with bluegills (and man can they reproduce)

Am looking to add crappie....any downside?

There are a few guys on here that are real pros who will chime in here. I bet they well say

"Crappie do not do well in small ponds and will quickly overpopulate and stunt. Also they need shad and lots of them. Hard to get that right in such a small pond. Add some bass to control your bluegills"...Experts?

Good job Dan702...nailed it!!

I am definitely not an expert however i have a friend who is really into pond management and a former pro bass angler. He advised if I ever thought about starting a pond that was for a healthy bass population to never place crappie in it. He advised as previously mentioned crappie will eat the shad even if they starve. Bluegill was his recommendation.
Good luck.

thank you guys...

Everybody above is absolutely correct. And yet....

Not everybody wants to fish for bass.

I've done crappie in small ponds but it takes a special approach.

The biggest problems with crappie are first, they stunt easily and can reproduce at about 4 inches in length, this allows for a perpetuated stunted situation. Second they must eat live food, and are picky eaters. They also convert what they eat to fish flesh very inefficiently. Third, this places them in direct competitin with bass, if bass is a species in the pond.

So, you want to get around these problems and have crappie in your pond.

The best bet would be to get some hybrid crappie, they have reduced fecundity and are less likely to stunt and overpopulate.

Then you will need to feed them. They'll eat a few bluegill, but they don;t much care for them. They like minnows and shad. Figure about 20 pounds of bait minnows for each pound of crappie produced. If you can get the pond to raise shad and minnows good, that helps, but most crappie ponds I have worked with are stocked only with crappie and the minnows are put in at regular intervals in large numbers.

Costs a fortune, but can be done.

Then again there are exceptions. I've caught some darn good crappie in small, unstocked, unmanaged ponds.

I know that up here (Missouri), if people dostock drappie, they stock black crappie, not whites...supposedly dont reporoduce as much..??

We have a great population of black and hybrid crappie in a pond about the size of yours In east Texas

I've also been warned about all the downsides of adding crappie to a pond, but I think crappie are one of the prettiest fish and I just like them. So I am just about to add some "Hybrid Crappie" to my 4 acre pond. I see someone earlier posted about this as well. Hybrid crappie although more of a recent development appear to greatly decrease the problems that crappie can cause in a pond. Read link below to learn more about the Hybrid Crappie.

Hybrid Crappie

thanks guys.....will try adding black crappie...

Years back a friend of mine stocked Crappie in his pond and as long as we caught and kept a lot of them all was well

Saw a thing from Iowa State University that said....DO NOT put crappie in a pond. You can not catch enough out fast enough and they will over populate and stunt growth of themselves and other fish. I did not say it, IA State did for what it's worth.

Let us know how it works out... I hope in a a year we dont see the thread "how do you remove Crappie from small tank?" lol

There is an old line that says "if you laid all the economists in the world end to end they wouldn't reach a conclusion"....apparently the same thing is true about advice regarding fishing. Based on the advice I have rec'd I should...or maybe should not...add crappie to my pond. (am being light hearted here).

Will pass on adding crappie...appears to be a lot of downside...

thanks to all

great reply...thanks