take crappie from a lake and put in a private pond? For instance, say you put 25 full grown crappies (males & females) in a 6 acre pond, fully loaded with eggs. Will these fish still spawn? Approximately how long would it take before the pond started producing nice crappies?

I don't see why it would be illegal to take live crappie to stock a pond as long as you stay with the legal laws and limits when catching the crappie. If you can kill them to eat why wouldn't you be able to keep them alive?

But before I did that I would buy some minnows from a farm and have a bait fish population established before I placed the crappie there.

dont know about the illegality of it, but I've done it 3 different times. what I can tell you is that you dont want to transplant white crappie. super prolific and will stunt within a year. on the other hand, you'll be able to catch tons of crappie that are 3-4". as far as the females spawning, its a coin toss.

let me rephrase...as far as the females spawning THIS spring, its a coin toss. but they will eventually.

I can tell you that lake naconiche was filled with water stocked in 2009 and we were catching 14 inch fish last year. It doesn't take too long.

Make sure you are not transporting water from a lake with Zebra mussel restrictions.

I would honestly wait until winter to do it. Crappie are not as tough in the spring and warmer temps get them. That being said the minnows are a good idea and I would order 100 black crappie from a farm, it's only about $40-60 and it doesn't pose the threat of transferring disease or parasites like lake fish do.

If that's true, that's a great idea!

to take a quote from the TPW...see below.

it would seem that you need a permit, always best to ask first, and the zebra muscles is a great point to consider. I am seeing them more than I ever would of thought in Ray Bob, good luck and good fishin

� Take, kill, or disturb sea turtles or sea turtle eggs;
� Take, kill, or disturb any endangered or threatened species (paddlefish, shovel-nosed sturgeon,
smalltooth sawfish, and others);
� Take or kill diamondback terrapin, sawfish of any species, porpoises, dolphins (mammals), or whales;
� Place any game fish into public waters, other than the body of water where the fish was caught,
without a valid permit issued by TPWD. This includes fish caught by pole and line. For permit
information, please call TPWD at (800) 792-1112 (menu 4) or (512) 389-4444.
� Use any vessel to harry, herd or drive fish including, but not limited to, operating any vessel in a
repeated circular course, for the purpose of or resulting in the concentration of fish for the purpose of
taking or attempting to take fish.

Price for crappie is actually more like $80-100/100count I must have been thinking of bluegill.

This actually may be the best thing to do. I was just thinking of how I could get a jumpstart...

He's talking about transferring them to a PRIVATE pond not to another public water

If this pond is freshly built, make sure you start with stocking your minnows and other baitfish first. You need a very healthy supply of minnows before sustaining a large population of crappie.

Crappie grow very fast, and what I've read is that they spawn at about 6" long. So you will get 2-3 spawns out of the fish before they are big enough to eat. We added hybrid an black crappie to a pond 2 winters ago and the hybrid crappie are 10" and the blacks are 8" they were only 2-3" when we put them in, so it doesn't take long to get nice fish if there are plenty of shad or minnows. The place we use always says stock minnows and smaller fish in winter while predator fish are sluggish and while fish are heartier. And as mentioned before avoid white crappie.

I wouldn't transport them if I was you with the intent of stocking !!!!
if its an established pond just buy some 3 to 4 inch black crappie right now ! 100 or so
Dunns fish farm is probably still doing routes near you
if its a starter pond put bream in now 200 or 300
and the crappie come fall ...
DONT stock bass
add a few channel 50 to 100 come fall as well
good to go in 2 or 3 years
KABOOM