PondTools

Smallmouth bass

Can you stock smallmouth bass in a pond? Rates, forage, bluegill

Yes, smallmouth bass work in a pond, with conditions: the water stays cool and clear, there is rock or gravel for them to spawn on, and you keep largemouth bass and bluegill out. Plan the stocking in fingerlings per acre, somewhere between 25 and 80 depending on fish size, and build the forage a season ahead with fathead minnows, golden shiners, yellow perch, redear sunfish or lake chubsuckers. The usual mistake is stocking bluegill as the forage. In a small pond the bluegill out-breed the smallmouth, and in a few years you own a sunfish pond with a few bass.

What the authoritative sources say

Most state pond guides skip smallmouth. The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources says "Fish species suited for small ponds are generally limited to largemouth bass, bluegill, redear sunfish, and channel catfish," its pond management guide never mentions the species, and neither does Purdue's Stocking Fish in Indiana Ponds.

The one extension sheet that addresses it is Ohio State's Fish Species Selection for Pond Stocking (A-10-02): "This is a species that does best in rivers, streams, and very large lakes with an abundance of rock, gravel, and sand. While smallmouth bass stocked in ponds may survive and provide the occasional novelty catch, they often grow slowly and do not reproduce. The exception to this would be the deeper, borrow pit ponds around Ohio where the bottom is largely sand and gravel. Smallmouth bass do fairly well in these systems." For the whole group of less common species it says "Stocking rates have not been developed for these species. In general, the owner should not stock more than 100 per acre of any of the following species."

The only agency table with a smallmouth row is the Michigan DNR Fish Stocking Guidelines II (2004), and that row is for "Coolwater lakes" with no competing fish, not for ponds. It gives smallmouth as "fingerling 30" per acre at "2 - 6" inches plus "adults 5" per acre at "10+" inches, and it marks bluegill as optional.

The research the forum cites is Bennett and Childers, The Lake Chubsucker as a Forage Species, Progressive Fish-Culturist 28(2):89-92, 1966. The paper is paywalled, so the numbers here come from Bill Cody's summary on Pond Boss.

Smallmouth numbers by source, per acre
SourceRateContext
Ohio State A-10-02No rate developed; not more than 100 per acrePonds; ceiling for the whole "other species" group
Michigan DNR Guidelines II30 fingerlings at 2 to 6 inches plus 5 adults at 10 inches or moreCoolwater lakes, no competing fish
Bennett and Childers 1966, via Bill Cody22 to 34 lake chubsuckers; smallmouth yield 27 to 80 poundsFive Illinois ponds and lakes
Bill Cody (Moderator)60 to 80 fingerlings at 3 to 5 inches in springFull rate, no largemouth
teehjaeh57 (Moderator)25 to 75 feed-trained fishDepending on goals
CJBS2003 (Hall of Fame)50 fish, then 50 more the next spring1 acre pond with yellow perch
Bill Cody (Moderator)8 to 12 new fish per yearRecruitment for a trophy fishery

What Pond Boss members do

The forum answers in counts rather than pounds because smallmouth are bought as individual fish of a known length, and the number of mouths sharing the forage decides their size. Bill Cody (Moderator, Ambassador Field Correspondent) has "stocked smallmouth bass without LMB numerous times with great success; resulting size of the smallies depends on the quality of the forage food base and the number of SMB competing." His full rate is 60 to 80 per acre for 3 to 5 inch fish in spring. teehjaeh57 (Chairman, Moderator) gives 25 to 75 feed-trained fish per acre depending on goals, or up to 50 per acre for a one acre pond. CJBS2003 (Ambassador Field Correspondent, Hall of Fame) planned 50 per acre in each of two springs. RAH (Lunker) stocked 20 smallmouth in total over two years in a one acre Indiana pond, and they spawned. Nobody on the forum disagrees about largemouth. Cody says a smallmouth pond can become a largemouth pond by adding largemouth, but the reverse needs every largemouth removed.

Forage goes in two stages. Cody says fatheads stocked at 5 to 8 pounds per acre in summer can produce 80 to 100 pounds per acre by the end of summer. They do not last. esshup (Moderator) expects smallmouth to run them short or eliminate them within two years, and ewest (Moderator, Hall of Fame) calls them "snacks, not meals" for bigger bass. For the second stage Cody names yellow perch at 3 to 5 inches, golden shiners and redear (he likes redear because they rarely overpopulate), and he calls chubsuckers and smallmouth a very good combination. His summary of Bennett and Childers is that chubsuckers stocked at 22 to 34 per acre with smallmouth in five Illinois ponds and lakes gave smallmouth yields of 27 to 80 pounds per acre, and that the authors found the chubsucker a very satisfactory forage if bluegill are not wanted. esshup has also seen smallmouth eat out shiners, perch, fatheads and redear where the forage had no cover.

Cody is blunt about bluegill: "I have never found a small pond with good SMB and BG together." His reason is that bluegill reproduce reliably every year while smallmouth can have one or two bad spawns, and the balance tips. There are two narrow workarounds. Cody suggests male-only coppernose bluegill for four or five years, and teehjaeh57 reports that four adult bluegill as summer forage gave his smallmouth their best body condition, though that was in a production pond he nets.

Cody says that after 20 years with smallmouth in small ponds, a patch of pea gravel or 1 to 2 inch gravel in 2 to 4 feet of water will very likely get a spawn. ewest puts spawning at 60 to 68 degrees F, and esshup says one pair is enough in a one acre pond. For a trophy pond Cody wants only 8 to 12 new smallmouth per acre per year.

Where the tiers differ

No agency gives a smallmouth stocking rate for a pond. Ohio's 100 per acre is a ceiling for a whole group of species, and Michigan's 30 fingerlings and 5 adults are for coolwater lakes. The forum's 25 to 80 per acre is experience, and the 50 to 100 per acre figure on hatchery sites has no extension source I could find. Ohio's "often grow slowly and do not reproduce" is about the typical pond, with the sand and gravel borrow pit as its exception, and the forum's spawns come from gravel ponds without largemouth. The agencies say nothing about bluegill alongside smallmouth, the forum says do not do it, and the practitioner source agrees: a Mossy Oak article (a hatchery and pond-management source rather than an agency) quotes Luke Moren of Southeastern Pond Management, "We develop a good forage base using fathead minnows, golden shiners, and red ear sunfish and if the climate is conducive, we add threadfin shad."

Regional notes

The farther north and the clearer and rockier the pond, the easier this is. In the South, the Mossy Oak piece says "Although the scientific literature suggests their prime growing temperature is 80-85 degrees F, their growth and survival are not limited by the higher temperatures found in the Southeast," and describes a fed, 7 foot deep red-clay pond in central Alabama where 2 inch fingerlings reached about 10 to 11 inches in year one and approached four pounds after four and a half years. Cody says without largemouth they do well even in Texas.

What to do

  1. Check the pond against Ohio's description: clear water, some depth, gravel or rock along part of the shore.
  2. Confirm there are no largemouth. A pond that has held spawning largemouth needs a full renovation first; the stocking sequence article covers the order.
  3. Build the forage a season ahead: fatheads at the rates in the fathead and golden shiner article, plus golden shiners, perch, redear or chubsuckers. Give the minnows pallets or rip rap and leave them a summer.
  4. Pick a count. Stock 25 to 75 per acre, which is the forum range, with 60 to 80 per acre of 3 to 5 inch fish in spring as Bill Cody's full rate, and fewer if you want trophies. The PondTools carrying-capacity calculator (also standalone) takes pond area in acres, water fertility from clear to fed and aerated, and North or South, and gives the pounds of fish the pond can hold. The PondTools stocking-plan calculator (standalone) takes area, fertilization, goal, region and redear and catfish checkboxes; it is built around largemouth and bluegill, so use its minnow and redear lines and take the smallmouth count from the table above.
  5. Lay spawning gravel before filling: pea gravel or 1 to 2 inch gravel in 2 to 4 feet of water.
  6. Do not add bluegill. If you want a sunfish, use redear.
  7. Each fall, weigh and measure a few fish in the PondTools fish-condition calculator (standalone), which takes species, total length in inches and weight in pounds and ounces. Thin fish mean the forage is gone.

Sources