Beau, welcome aboard.

One thing on the recommendation you got...when they say "smallmouth" from that hatchery, they are talking about Hybrid Striped Bass (HSB).

For most of us on the forum here, and in the fisheries world, those are not interchangeable terms (Smallmouth vs. Hybrid Striped Bass).

Excerpt from Robert Crais' "The Monkey's Raincoat:"
"She took another microscopic bite of her sandwich, then pushed it away. Maybe she absorbed nutrients from her surroundings."