I have been doing research on creating a smallmouth pond in New Jersey. I don't want to use artificial feed. I'm hoping that I can provide enough forage to do the job for me.

I know all about creating habitat for forage for spawning, hiding, growing, etc. I'm not concerned about getting populations of anything established in my future pond, as all the forage will be going in a full year ahead of the bass.

Does this look like it will be enough to grow some trophy smallies?

Bluntnose Minnows
Banded Killifish
Golden Shiners
Lake Chubsuckers
Grass Shrimp
Crayfish

I really didn't want to add a secondary predator species, but I will if I have to.

Possible candidates are redear sunfish or yellow perch.

I like the redears because with them in the mix I can add a few more species to the pond, like fingernail clams and wandering snails. I guess that the clams would be an effort to keep the water a little clearer and provide a self replicating source of protein for the crayfish which would in turn supply my bass with larger food items.

I would think that the shape of the yellow perch would be much more advantageous for smallmouth forage, but for some reason I am reluctant to add them. I guess that I'm worried that at a larger size they will compete heavily with the bass for food.

I know that adding redear or yellow perch will increase angling opportunities, but I don't really care about that. A pond full of chunky smallmouths and no other game fish doesn't sound like such a bad angling opportunity to me.

I am also looking into gambusia and seeing how to make my pond as hospitable as possible for different insect species.

I'd like to get this right the first time, do it with bass as the ONLY predator, and then only have to worry about how many of what size bass I am going to harvest every year to make managing a body of water like this as easy as possible.

Reality is constantly ruining my life.