I explain why the myth of SMB in ponds and warm water was created in Part 1 of 5 for my SMB article series in PB magazine. If we are going to write an authoritative article that is believable and the information is to be trusted we should have a good literature reference list citing appropriate SMB literature.

A portion of Part 1 “Growing the Best Smallies” Is copied here:

Busting The Myth
Most all common literature says smallies are typically found and thought to do best in continually cool, deep, rocky northern or midwestern lakes or cool water streams. Another reference says smallies prefer clear, rocky lakes with a minimum of 25-30 feet deep and water temperatures no more than 80 degrees F. Nahh! That's a myth.

Smallmouth bass actually are native to the northern parts of North America that have areas of cooler water with basins lined with boulders, rocks and various sizes of gravel. Smallmouth bass also grow and thrive in many streams of various sizes. Smallies have also been stocked by agencies and citizens in many states of the United States. Water temperatures of some of the mid-western and southern slow, moving streams where smallies thrive are regularly in the mid to high 80 degree F and sometimes even 90 degrees during dog days of summer.

Why the myth?
A classic early study of northern lakes with native smallies concluded these bass prefer to stay in cooler water along deeper rocky ledges. In reality, smallies were forced to compete with other more dominate predators, largemouth bass, who staked their claim to prime shallower habitat spots. Thus, the traditional "preferred habitat areas" of deep, cooler water often reported in early literature were probably the second habitat of choice (out of necessity) for smallies due to competition from largemouth and walleye (Ripley and Sura 1999). In those cases, smallies probably had to inhabit other spots or areas due to bullying from other, more aggressive fish, such as largemouth bass. In the early studies, competitors likely forced smallmouth out of warmer, food-rich shallow areas and to survive, they had to take up residence in cooler deeper locations, places less preferred by largemouth bass. Researchers of those early studies (Dendy 1948, Norris Lake, TN), thus concluded the colder, deeper spots where smallmouth were most commonly found were preferred habitats.

Truth is, smallmouth often are found in cool water, but function quite well in warm, shallow, weedy water when other predator sparse or not present. In scientific literature, laboratory studies have shown smallmouth bass will survive in summer water temperatures of 90-92 F. So, if your pond is not located in the southernmost areas of the United States and water temperatures do not stay above 95 F for weeks at a time, smallies will likely do just fine in your pond or lake.

Contrary to popular belief, smallies do not need extensive rocky, cool water habitats to thrive. They will grow well and reproduce in ponds where largemouth flourish. Personally, I have raised thriving numbers of smallmouth bass up to 20" long that successfully reproduced annually and grew well in a small, seven-foot-deep, clay-bottomed pond where water temperatures in mid-summer frequently reached low 90s. In my region of northwest Ohio, smallmouth do quite well year after year in numerous small ponds where there are no largemouth bass.


Growing smallies is not always just a matter of adding them to your pond. Pond Boss editor and fisheries biologist, Bob Lusk, as an experiment, stocked smallies in one of his small North Texas ponds. The smallmouth went into the 3/4 acre pond, stocked at the same time with walleye, just for fun. Lusk stocked 12, 6-8 inch smallmouth with 13 similar size walleye. The pond was freshly filled with well water and fish were stocked in November, 2003 along with fingerling bluegill sunfish. The next spring, Lusk added some extra channel catfish he had and began to feed the fish with an automatic feeder. A seine survey in November, 2004 showed both smallmouth and walleye survived a relatively "cool" Texas summer. But, since then, not one smallmouth or walleye has been seen. But, the channel cat are thriving and largemouth bass infiltrated from ponds upstream during a minor flood event. However, results and survival of smallmouth and walleye were poor. I am not sure why they did not survive, but I don't think it was due to high water temperatures.

In Phoenix, Arizona, a member of the Pond Boss Forum and avid Pond Boss subscriber, Aaron Matos, has smallies growing and reproducing in a small 0.17 acre, shallow pond in his backyard. It's not just any pond, though. He has a wetland filtration system and the plastic-lined pond is loaded with rocks and boulders strategically placed along shelves and ridges. Great habitat, but even with all the "perfect" habitat, water temperatures of this pond were measured to be 92 to 95 F when air temperatures are frequently 100 F or more. Phoenix has an average 21 days a year where air temps reach 110 F. His water is often more like bath water than smallmouth bass water. Yet they thrive.

As an in-between species in a mixed community of fish, smallies will function the best they can and will inhabit areas not already occupied by more dominant fish. A couple of studies have shown smallies do not compete well with bluegills, green sunfish or bullheads. In these situations, the bigger the pond and the more diverse the structures, then the more areas will be available for smallies to hang out and survive. When largemouth are present, the largemouths will dominate and bully smallies into locating to other less desirable areas of the pond. Dr. Dave Willis, fisheries biologist from South Dakota, and numerous others including this author have found that when combined with largemouth, the smallie population always gradually declines without regular supplemental stocking of large juveniles or adults.

By themselves as the dominant predator in the pond, smallies will occupy the same type of shallow habitat and locations preferred by largemouth and some other panfish. Thus, many ponds able to grow largemouth will grow smallies, especially if competition with other, more aggressive fish is low.

Smallmouth bass have been reported to have much less inclination to school than largemouth (Mraz 1964d). However, I (and others) have watched juvenile smallmouth in small ponds hunt in packs of 5-10 fish as they crowd and attack small forage fish herded by the bass into shallow water. Many good bass anglers know that numerous smallies can be caught from one small area. In winter, smallies will congregate in schools in deeper water areas.

Myth Circle
Temperature myths about smallies requiring clear, cool, rocky bottom habitats have been prolonged by combined writings of outdoor writers and authors of fishery journals (Ripley and Sura 1999). Early fishing and semi-pro fishery writers referred only to basic early research in their articles. Wildlife and Natural Resource agencies often repeated the temperature myths found in fishery-related books and magazines.

Even today, angling writers, who have not carefully reviewed detailed scientific literature regarding temperature tolerances of smallmouth bass are still referencing the old mythical literature. Thus, the circle of errors about temperature myths for smallies are still commonly repeated. So, what has been written up to now in many articles may not tell the whole story about this fascinating fish.