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Several years ago 'ewest' posted this about the natural diet preferences of smallmouth bass.
"In general, the types of food consumed by smallmouth black bass, Micropterus dolomieu, are fairly well-known. Practically all the important studies that have been made of the food of fry, fingerlings,or adults have been based on material collected from lakes.

The most important food studies of smallmouth black bass have been made by Tester(1932), Wicklift(1920), Eaton(1928), Moore (1922), and Sibley and Rimsky-Korsakoff (1931). Tester's study was based on an examination of the stomachs of 540 fish of all sizes obtained from various lakes in Ontario. He noted that as the fry increased in length, several changes in diet took place. These changes were correlated with the ability of the growing fish to take organisms of increasing size. In the larger lakes, Georgian Bay (a part of Lake Huron) and Lake Nipissing, the food of the larger bass consisted of about 75 per cent crayfish and 25 per cent fish, mostly yellow perch.
In a smaller lake, Perch Lake, fish and crayfish were the most important items, but, in addition, a large percentage of insects and other organisms entered into the diet of the smaller fish.

Wicklift (1921) examined 313 fingerlings from 0.85 to 6.50 centimeters in length from the western end of Lake Erie. He concluded that copepods and cladocerans were the most important food until the fish attained a length of 15 millimeters (0.6") . From 16 to 45 millimeters (1.8") copepods and cladocerans, mixed with mayfly nymphs, midge larvae and pupae, fish, and adult insects were important.""