SMB/YP/FHM can be a good fishery combination. I have several clients that use just those species. SMB and LMB will grow bigger if you also use YP rather than just bass and minnows. Laggis' YP and SMB are pellet trained to get those fish growing fast. Laggis did his education at MSU. If you stock his pellet trained 5"-6" YP in May and feed them 3/16"-1/4" brand pellets bought from Laggis and that he uses, you can get YP to 8"-10" by November. Otherwise it will take 2-3 yrs to get 10" YP. You can easily grow some 14" YP and 18"-19" SMB using those fishes in your pond. I drove 3hrs to get some SMB from him many years ago.
In your MI case I think you could stock FHM and 5"-6" YP in Apr-May and then add SMB from Laggis in Aug-Oct when he has them available. The YP will then spawn the next year. His genetic SMB stock came from the area where the MI state Record smallie was caught – Indian River water shed area.
If you want fairly dependable spawning and recruitment of the SMB you should build and install at least 2 of these specialized SMB spawning structures. Place them in water 3-4ft maybe one at about 5ft deep.
https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=368577#Post368577 https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=42450&Number=554298#Post554298Creating these larger fish sizes requires good PROPER management of the numbers and size structure of the various size classes. Remember the more bigger fish that are present the fewer fish that will compose the pond’s fishery carrying capacity. The pond capacity if based on total fish poundage. How that poundage is distributed among the various fish sizes is the manager’s job.
Read and understand pond carrying capacity.
https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92440#Post92440Too many SMB can significantly limit the recruitment of YP that minimizes the number of YP that can be harvested.
The more habitat that you install / create the more FHM that will survive and improve production . This fishery will better prosper if it has crayfish that can utilize rocky rip-rap shoreline habitat down to 4ft-6ft deep. Best habitat involves about 15%-25% of the shoreline lined with small-medium tree tops and or MI glacier cobble/boulders or broken waste concrete from contractors will work. Your contactor may have waste concrete or know where some is stockpiled for use as riprap along the shoreline of your pond. Doing this will allow the forage fishes, YOY young fish and adults to prosper. Good types of habitat and structure will increase fish poundage in the pond.
Here is a very good podcast where the fishery experts discuss what is good fish habitat.
https://www.buzzsprout.com/976324/3322504-episode-001-fish-habitats?t=0See information in these links from the PBoss archives about growing SMB.
https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=103428#Post103428Plan on seeding the exposed dirt asap in spring using oats mixed with some type of grass seed - maybe Kentucky 31. Vegetated water shed will reduce suspended soil-clay turbidity. Oats will sprout quickly and provide soil stability for the establishment of grass seed.
