I've just posted a new article that explains what it takes to grow huge smallies.

Growing Smallies Into Trophies

I'm not growing any smallies,wish I were,and still find it interesting and a good read,thanks Glenn.

I have read all of these even though I think it would be pretty impossible to grow smallies in a dorm room, but I have really enjoyed reading these articles.  Good Job.

Great articles! I love this kind of thing -well documented material. Gives me a deeper understanding of my fishing waters.

I have a pond with both LM and SM. At present the smallies dominate -at least my catches. There are good numbers of big smallies (to 20"), but of the smalls I catch, most are LM. These articles address the probable reasons for this. I'm wondering how long they've been together and when/if a dominance shift will occur.

I've just posted a new article that explains what it takes to grow huge smallies.

Growing Smallies Into Trophies

Long live the smallmoth bass!  :-*

You guys make me jealous that have ponds.  I really want to have my own eventually, but I'd have to buy some property. 

I kind of always thought you have to have a deep pond for smallies to live in?

I totally agree with you on the largemouth topic, it's hard to keep the smallies around if largemouth end up taking over the pond which they usually do.

I live near this large lake that have both smallies and largemouth.  At one point the population was 70% smallmouth and 30% largemouth.  Now that has drastically changed, now I think it's like 80% largemouth and 20% smallmouth.  It seems the largemouth bass have just taken over the entire lake.  It makes me kind of mad because smallmouth bass are my favorite to catch.

Well, I've never grow a smallie, and i'll probably never own a pond so I didn't read the story, but just wanted to say that...

how smallies grow themselves into trophies without someone stocking the food, habitat and whatever else for them is that they

1) live in locations where anglers never fish for them because we all read the same magazines, listen to the same TV pros or shows and fish predictable locations where we can catch many small fish versus one trophy all day.

2) and/or or they live where where they disappear into the vastness of the environment and are almost impossible to target.

They live outside the range of where anglers are willing or able or accustomed to fish for them - and die of old age - possibly without ever seeing a hook.

Some of the vast bodies of water have plenty of fish that have seen lures....Guys on St Clair aren't going to fish in the middle of nowhere. Isolated weedbeds and rock piles are getting the fishing pressure, and those are areas other anglers will find and utilize.

Proper management, and abundance of forage. That grows trophy smallmouth. Reduced competition from largemouth helps also.

I think smallmouth compete with largemouth more than any other fish. Including lakes with large predators like Pike and Musky.

Make no mistake that trophy smallmouth are being caught by fisherman and not just dying of old age. Some places folks already know of, and some less known are producing sub 10lb fish......but just barely.

And in places a 7-9 is the typical trophy.