I'll go find the link to Bill Cody's article explaining some of the issues with BG and smb but this is a classic example of misunderstanding the underlying issue.. It's not just that BG are more prolific, it's also a fact that SMB tend to utilize food sources not used by other species that provide less target pressure on BG/forage fish in general because they utilize available items not targeted so much by other Black bass. This trait leaves the door open for BG to have higher than desired recruitment due to less pressure and SMB having a smaller gape. The eventual result will be BG competing in many ways with SMB. The lower reproductive rates of RES have less tendency to explode with an over abundance of YOY on a continued basis such as BG are capable of. Even the RES tend to feed on items less utilized by other species. Whoever figured this out was doing their homework really.
I'll go find the link, there are 5 parts to the article, read it through and I think you will really appreciate the thought that went in to it.
Read here, it's an excellent guide..
https://www.bassresource.com/fish_biology/growing-smallmouth.html
