Do spotfins and bluntnose occur naturally in NE?
See my "Growing the Best Smallies" Part V for some good food items for smallmouth bass.
http://www.bassresource.com/fish_biology/growing-smallmouth-bass.htmlThe food items listed is not all inclusive and intended as a good basis. Threadfin shad could be a possibility for southern ponds. Hybrid bluegill are another possibility that would a bonus fish and also provide a good panfish but not a lot of forage fish. The banded killifish could be substituted for the top minnows. Don't overlook tilapia. They could work well with smallies in a pond that has algae. Weed beds or dense cover would be very beneficial in a pond with smallies to provide refuge for the forage fish. It is a delicate balance between too many weeds and enough to create good small fish refuge. Some shallow water or an adjacent wetland may help with cover for forage foods including grass shrimp and numerous insect larvae. A thought - If one had a lengthy part of the shoreline 50-100ft with tethered floating islands this may provide good habitat for small fish of all kinds, improve water quality and not get out of control plant-weed management wise.
Omaha mentions spotfin shiner
Cyprinella spilopterus. I like them. I am not sure how they would thrive with smallmouths as a main predator. But other very similar species in other parts of the US are the satinfin shiner - eastern US (
Cyprinella analostana) and Steelcolor shiner - more central midwest (
Cyprinella whipplei).
http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/factsheet.aspx?SpeciesID=523All have the same niche, do well in ponds and spawn the same unique way. These shiners work good for the perch dominated ponds. One may have to resort to using the golden shiner which gets large(8"-10") and can better avoid smallie predation compared to the other shiners - spotfin, satinfin and steelcolor which get to around 5" long. If you have any of these shiners in streams of your area, I can tell you how to collect them.
