I've planted feed trained smallmouth in the past with my largemouth and they did pretty good growth wise to over 3 lbs. until I took them out, but reproduction was almost nil. But then again largemouth recruitment was almost nil too as there were 400 largemouths to just under 6 lbs. in this .62 acre pond I feed daily.
Smallmouth are only available here in the fall at about 4 or 5 inches so I put them into a floating cage over the winter, and got them to about 10 inches later the following year before I planted them.
This time around (I've since drained and started all over) I planted 200 four to five inchers last fall, but I no longer have the dreaded green carp. I had them originally in a cage again, but was losing a few so I released them into the pond. I'm catching them now as I remove a few bluegill to the production pond, and they look really good at about 6 inches and really filled out. They are feeding on pellets and numerous fathead minnows. They are coexisting with mostly female yellow perch to the mid 13 inch range and male bluegills up to over 10 inches.
Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 05/06/10 09:38 PM.
