Chris - Thanks for the testimony; that's great news to hear the smallies are still surviving in your clay bottom Texas pond. Congratulations young man for pushing the envelope for SMB in the south. Keep us advised about your SMB studies in the Texas climate. Aaron Matos' SMB experience in AZ also helps indicate that it is not so much the heat but primarily the presence of the more aggressive LMB that stifle smallie success in ponds. Smallies will even thrive in shallow water weedy conditions that the LMB prefer if LMB are not pushing them out of that habitat.
Bob Lusk's unsuccessful attempt at producing a SMB pond was IMO due primarily to presence of a few undetected LMB in the test SMB pond (see my post on the next page for the article).
Smallies can live with LMB in ponds, but numerous experiences have shown the smallies need to be periodically supplementally stocked as larger fish for the smallies to be present long term (also see below for links to more about this). I've been studying about and working with SMB in ponds for many years and the patterns for success are gradually emerging.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 02/19/15 03:42 PM.
