I have about 150 plus smallies in a pond that are from 1 to 3 lbs. along with my largemouths, bluegills, and now very few yellow perch. I will be selling the larger smallies to Bass Pro Shops next month for their aquariums.

If I wanted a smallmouth pond I would purchase feed trained smallmouth which are what these are. However, not all feed trained smallmouth are created equal. These are from my third source and they have stayed on the pellets the best. The other sources didn't stay on the pellets very long. My best luck has been with feed trained smallmouth from Laggis Fish Farms in Gobles Michigan (southwest Michigan) and they are really clean healthy fish too. They grow just a little slower than the feed trained largemouths I have had.

I would not plant any largemouths with them (largemouths crowd them away from the feed) and probably no bluegills or yellow perch either as they may not completely control them due to their smaller mouth gapes compared to a largemouth. However I do know smallmouth will ravage small bluegills as I have seen them do so. In fact I've watched them herd and eat small bluegills while the feed trained largemouths appeared too lazy to do so.

I would plant the appropriate crayfish species with the feed trained fish and look in to Golden shiners as part of their diet as Bill says. They will also eat invertebrates and in some respects eat smaller items like bluegills do.

Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 09/05/07 07:08 PM.
If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.