Hello there, I hope everyone is well. My grand daughter caught this fella cruising about with a pack of shiners over the weekend. I only put 4 smallmouth in the pond so my expectations were not to really see anymore than just that (could have all been one sex and getting them isn't easy at the hatchery - or cheap). It's no shiner though so looking for confirmation or correction.
I have caught a bunch of those, and smaller, with a tiny jig hook and Gulp Alive green waxies for bait. I could actually see them in shallow water hunting in packs of a few along the bank, toss the jig in and watch them follow it up and strike. I have stocked three other ponds by catching many that way and transferring them to my other ponds. Anywhere from about 4" up to 6" in size. Figured most of them would just get eaten when we transferred them, but we can catch SMB regularly in the ponds we transferred them into so I guess many survived. Mine were all recruits from my original SMB spawning. I've had them spawn and reproduce every year up until this year. This year I don't know because I have not been around that pond that much and have not fished for the small ones. But I see no reason there is not another crop of them out there. They have been very prolific in my SMB/RES only pond. This year could be different though as I stocked quite a few HSB so they may have had an impact on the recruitment of the SMB spawn.
I enjoy catching tiny fish. Man those little SMB can flip a hook in a heartbeat. I would pull them right in as soon as they struck because about a third of the time they would throw the hook by the time I got them to the bank and would have to pick them up off the ground.
They are fighters. In a couple of years if things go well, you may have lots of small SMB.
This is my old thread about my SMB/RES pond. It started out as a RES only pond but in the first year I decided to add SMB. Probably two or three pages in before the SMB stuff starts.
My RES/SMB dedicated pond
