Smallmouth Bass
		Smallmouth Bass (Micropterus dolomie) are arguably the best fighting fish in the bass family.  They prefer cooler water, usually upland creeks, rivers and lakes.  They grow much more slowly than their largemouth cousins (it takes about 5 years for them to grow to 17 inches in length) and do not perform well in the presence of largemouth bass in small ponds. They can be trained to eat feed.The World record (taken from Dale Hollow Reservoir) is 11 pounds 15 ounces. >We generally stock adults (10-12 inches) into ponds that already have largemouth bass.
	Since smallmouth bass aren’t able to successfully reproduce in most ponds in the southeast, they must be periodically restocked.  In ponds that are smallmouth only, we can restock fingerlings (4-6 inches) each year to keep the population strong.  Smallmouth do better in lakes that have threadfin shad, fathead minnows or golden shiners as forages than they do in bluegill based lakes.