Im in southwest mi.(little shorter growing season). I can speak a little too SMB. Ive been growing them since 2007 and started raising fry in 2014. In the last 3 seasons i have been documenting some of my findings. After spawn i move fry to a pond that has only fathead minnows. This usually happens in the last week in may. Before i can get them trainned on feed, which takes about a week. I notice some larger size fry. This i think is because they eat the smaller fry in the bunch while the smaller are focusing on smaller plankton etc. That 1st few weeks sets the growth stage. Keep in mind these fry are from the same spawn timing. Growing seasons can be very different. Early spawn bigger fish by the end of first season. Example, spawn this yr was 2 weeks later than last yr. 3 mths growth this yr shows fry from 2" to 6" with the majority in the 4" range. Last season were averaging 5" at 3 mths. And 2.5" to 8".
Jason d. Your 7" fish could have just been aggresive or feeding on siblings. The runts get pushed up into shallower water were the food may be smaller. The fry that i saved from last yr are now 15 months old. Smaller size around 8" up to 12" average being around 10" fat and healthy! Also note: LMB will dominate the SMB. They will push the smb into deeper water and take over the shallow water for spawning and feeding. Most of my smb nest are in 2ft of water because there are no lmb. They thrive here in water from about 74° to 82° feeding aggresively.

Last edited by Ron crismon; 08/31/25 08:09 PM.