Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - SMB Discussions - Northern Ponds

SMB success in southern ponds such as Texas is noted in a latter post below - post dated 28/10/14 edited on 18/02/15.

Often a northern pond owner wants an alternative predator instead of the standard largemouth bass. Many people and anglers think the smallmouth bass (SMB) has to have exclusively coolwater and larger gravel bottom lakes to survive, reproduce and thrive. This is not completely true. Many regional strains of domesticated SMB in the mid-states areas of the United States (NE to NY) will very well tolerate warm water to occasional temperatures of the low 90's for at least short periods. Wild SMB from public waters (streams, lakes) MAY not be quite so tolerant of the higher temperatures. I have had SMB reproduce, thrive, and grow to 22" long (6.3lbs) in a 1/3 acre mud bottom pond that was only 7.5 ft deep and the pond experienced summer water temperatures of 90+F.

Unlike the LM bass, the SMB will not do its best when combined with just bluegill(BG) as a forage fish. This combination can work under certain conditions, but often the SMB struggles to thrive and keep the BG under control. Alternative forage fishes and various invertebrates species (esp crayfish) work best to grow the bigger sized, healthiest, and best SMB. SMB can be trained to eat high protein pelleted fish food (40%/+).

It is important to note that many studies have shown that the SMB does not do very well when combined with LM bass. Usually what happens is the SMB will not reproduce very well, if at all, when co-existing in small ponds with LMB. There may also be a strong behavioral competition factor of LMB toward SMB when they co-exist. Habitat diversity is limited in ponds compared to large lakes that have diverse habitats, thus SMB have few alternative places or niches to thrive without heavy influences from LMB especially during spawning. SMB will co-exist with LMB but rarely reproduces where young are added to the community. Thus when the original SMB become older and few, due to various causes of mortalities, no young SMB are present to take the place of adults and the population gradually dies out or disappears. If small or intermediate SMB are desired they almost always have to be occasionally supplementally stocked. In these cases, often the existing largest LMB will eat many of the new stocked SMB unless they are over 8"-12". Bottomline it is difficult in ponds to have thriving SMB with LMB present. THRIVING means not just surviving, but actively growing well AND reproducing to regularly introduce or recruit young individuals into the community.

Here is a link to some handy nice Excel calculators for relative weights for LMB, SMB, HSB, WE(walleye), BG, BCP (blk crappie), YP (yellow perch). Plus standard weights for LMB, SMB, HSB, BG, Crappie, and CC.
http://texasprolakemanagement.com/blog/relative-weight-calculators

The following links will provide some helpful ideas about growing SMB and some information about compatable forage foods. Special thanks to "ewest" for providing most of the links to previous topics.

Additions, as they become available, will be periodically made to this post - Dec 16 2007

NE OH, 2/3 ac, SMB with YP?, RES-BG? HSB co-predator, Substrates
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=15302&fpart=1

SE MI, 1.5 ac, swimming, SMB-YP-RES, walleye bonus, MI fishfarms
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=98850&fpart=1


SE Ontario, 21 ac, 30-40' deep, SMB, wanting more LMB
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=26321&fpart=1

Central IL, 4 ac, renovated for SMB. Forage crayfish, shiners, slot harvest.
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthrea...st&topic=0&Search=true#Post96183

IL, 5 ac, SMB-YP-RES Homemade structure
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=16190&fpart=1
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=197409

N central NY, 16' SMB, sunfsh contamination
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=25832&fpart=1

Upstate NY, 1/4 ac 14ft deep, SMB YP
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=18330&fpart=1

D.Willis SMB Article PBoss Mag

http://www.bassresource.com/fish_biology/stocking_smallmouth_bass.html

SMB Spawn Substrate Advice
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=66693&fpart=1

Improved version of proven and successful SMB spawning beds.
In this link are pictures of TJ's new version of raised spawning beds for SMB plus pictures of old silted spawn beds. Smallies do have the ability to sweep almost all the silt out of a gravel depression to clean it for a spawning site. TJ's raised beds allow for good water circulation from below and silt to sift through the nest site which will probably increase the hatch success of the eggs. Note that with the bottom of the nest 'open', newly hatched non-swimming fry could fall or drop through the nest and pallet into an area or zone unprotected the male bass. This may or may not lead to some fry predation if fry fall completely through the nest??? TJ reports excellent hatches from his SMB nest sites.
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=368577#Post368577

A link that includes some good information and discussion about raising smallmouth bass and its compatible forage items.
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=390928&page=1

Here is a link to growing SMB in Texas and similar southern states where water gets warmer than the standard northern pond conditions.
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=401222#Post401222

Several years ago 'ewest' posted this about the natural diet preferences of smallmouth bass.
"In general, the types of food consumed by smallmouth black bass, Micropterus dolomieu, are fairly well-known. Practically all the important studies that have been made of the food of fry, fingerlings,or adults have been based on material collected from lakes.

The most important food studies of smallmouth black bass have been made by Tester(1932), Wicklift(1920), Eaton(1928), Moore (1922), and Sibley and Rimsky-Korsakoff (1931). Tester's study was based on an examination of the stomachs of 540 fish of all sizes obtained from various lakes in Ontario. He noted that as the fry increased in length, several changes in diet took place. These changes were correlated with the ability of the growing fish to take organisms of increasing size. In the larger lakes, Georgian Bay (a part of Lake Huron) and Lake Nipissing, the food of the larger bass consisted of about 75 per cent crayfish and 25 per cent fish, mostly yellow perch.
In a smaller lake, Perch Lake, fish and crayfish were the most important items, but, in addition, a large percentage of insects and other organisms entered into the diet of the smaller fish.

Wicklift (1921) examined 313 fingerlings from 0.85 to 6.50 centimeters in length from the western end of Lake Erie. He concluded that copepods and cladocerans were the most important food until the fish attained a length of 15 millimeters (0.6") . From 16 to 45 millimeters (1.8") copepods and cladocerans, mixed with mayfly nymphs, midge larvae and pupae, fish, and adult insects were important.""