Just because of that smaller maximum size, I added OSS to a 7-acre pond with overly abundant smallmouth bass. I really could not see an effect of the sunfish as an additional prey species in terms of improvements in the smallmouths. However, the OSS persist in the pond, and undoubtedly provide prey. Last spring, I caught a male smallmouth of about 18 inches from that pond, and when I released him, he spit up three OSS. It was June, and I wonder if the OSS were spawning and more vulnernable than usual.
