In all the times I fished China Grove I never caught a crappie.  Lots of big Coppernose Bluegills. Jim, which pond did you catch the crappie?  Now I have another reason to go back to China Grove. Like I need a reason. China Grove is one of my favorite location, excellent fishing, great host and outstanding accomodations.

Hi Robert,

My mistake…I tend to equate Crappie with Bluegill. The ones I caught were the Coppernose Bluegills in the oldest pond (next to Rose’s Cabin). The large bass I caught was in the area west of the fenceline.

As mentioned above my wife and I are going back for New Year’s Eve but we are going to stay in the cabin at Parker’s Branch to try out that cabin. We are big fans of China Grove/Parker Branch.

I just got back from Canton China Grove with my two boys and nephew. Devon, the landowner is draining the pond next to the Bunk House and the boys spent a couple hours hand catching the remaining fish an a 10 x 20 foot area that was a foot deep. There were crappie, bass, blue gill and channel cat. Devon had no idea how the crappie got in the pond as they were not stocked. They were the most numerous of all the fish remaining. Devon removed several hundred (maybe 1000) of the bluegill and put them in the bigger lake. Crappie may have been the most prolific of the 4 species mentioned; and we were both suprised how many were in this small 1 acre pond. Crappie, usually do not fair well in ponds less than 5-10 acres. Anyway, the boys had a blast.

A long time ago in a land far away I had pond dug.  It was just An acre in size and was spring fed with no other feed of fresh water.  In the span of three years I had bass and bluegills in the pond.  Someone told me that waterfowl bring in the eggs on their feet.  Anyways I then decided not to stock it with trout to feed the bass and bought pellets instead.  We did manage to catch one bass that went three pounds.  I still own the land but haven’t seen the pond in twenty three years except from google maps.  I have heard stories about raining fishes when I was in Sunday school but never raining crappies but. Have fished many days in the crappy rain.

The age old question of how did a certain species of fish get in my pond that the landowner never stocked has been debated for years. The myth of waterfowl or birds bringing the eggs on their feet has been bantered many times. I will tell you the fisheries managers that I know, say, this claim has no validity. The reality in their collective opinions is probably through human intervention (somebody placed a couple of fish of that species in the pond or lake, unbenonst to the landowner). Or, the fish traveled through somesort of water way, usually flooding upstream.

Either way crappie are a huge consumer of many of the same forage as our bass like to eat and in my opionion due more harm than good in most club lakes. Having said that, IF the bass can keep the crappie in check, by eating most of them, or they can be kept in check through fishing, crappie can acutally be a source of food for bass. But, if I had the choice from day one of stocking, they would not go in my bass lake.