SBM-RL Posted September 8, 2006 Posted September 8, 2006 Do smallmouth survive in smaller ponds 7 acres or less? ive never caught any in ponds so i was wondering Quote
jomatty Posted September 8, 2006 Posted September 8, 2006 i see posts that say people are catching them in small ponds and i always wonder if it is really smallmouth they are catching. i live in va and fish a lot of small ponds and rivers and have never caught a smallmouth in a pond. matt Quote
djs fishing Posted September 8, 2006 Posted September 8, 2006 They can exist in small ponds. Not sure how they originally got there but I have a small pond near my house 4-5 acres and it has smallmouth in it. Yes, I do know what smallmouth look like and I am not mistaken them for some other fish. The pond is small but gets 25-30 ft deep in the middle. The only spot I can catch them is off one specific point that goes into or near that deep spot. I have fished this pond for 20 years and caught maybe 10 smallies or one smallie ten times. So yes it could happen. Probably not very likely but possible. Quote
FatBoy Posted September 8, 2006 Posted September 8, 2006 There's a guy around here who has stocked several small subdivision retention ponds with smallies (caught out of the river I believe). (And I'm not telling where... ) I've fished only one of them, about 4 acres. He stocked 9 fish in there two years ago. The other day, my buddy caught 14 in about an hour (I only got 2, but they were FUN!). Some were smaller than the smallest ones stocked, so they successfully spawned. I can't say what will happen in the long term. And I don't know if the fish are "happy" in that pond. But, YES, absolutely, they can survive and reproduce in a small pond. And yes, they are definitely smallmouth... Quote
rocknfish9001 Posted September 8, 2006 Posted September 8, 2006 They absoloutley could survive in almost any body of water if it holds proper spawning habitat and is deep enough. So basically, a 10 ft. deep pond with rocks and gravel will hold smallies. I know a "lake" that we fish that is about 5 acres. We catch sunnies, largemouths, pike, and SMALLMOUTHS. They are actually quite plentiful Quote
bassin baller Posted September 8, 2006 Posted September 8, 2006 in ponds up here in michigan i have caught two out of this pond one was 24 and one was 20 and a half and i know the difference between bronzebacks and largemouth..i do tournaments and catch both. but ya the guy said someone stocked somthing in his pond a long time ago and he didnt know what and i think thats what it was..im going to try and post the picture when i get it back from his wife. and thers also alot of 18 and 19 inch largemouth in there also. but the two biggest havebeen smallies. Quote
jomatty Posted September 9, 2006 Posted September 9, 2006 i certainly did not mean to imply that anyone in particular did not know what a smallie looked like. just that ive read post about smallies coming out of swampy ponds in the deep south that seemed unlikely to be properly identified. i guess that they can do ok in ponds if they are deep enough and the water dosent get too warm. matt Quote
MyKeyBe Posted September 9, 2006 Posted September 9, 2006 From what I have read smallie's can live in a small (acre or so) pond as long as they don't have a lot of competition for food. Put ten smallies and ten LM's in a small pond and the smallies will be gone in a few years. Again this is from what I have read and I personally have no idea. Quote
RandySBreth Posted September 9, 2006 Posted September 9, 2006 There are some small spring fed, cool water ponds here in the Ozarks where people have stocked both smallmouth and rainbow trout. That would be an awesome backyard pond- Smallmouths for fun, and smoked trout right out of your own pond. Found this-http://www.sepond.com/SMB.html Quote
=Matt 5.0= Posted January 18, 2007 Posted January 18, 2007 In my old hometown theres a rod and gun club that my dad and I used to belong to. They have a pond that's about 4 acres and it's full of smallies. Quote
Super User Dan: Posted January 18, 2007 Super User Posted January 18, 2007 I fish a small lake/pond in the shenandoah valley here in virginia. Lots of the locals seem to mistakenly call the largemouth out of this lake "smallmouth", most likely because they haven't fished anything but the shen. river which has very small numbers of largemouth that can only be caught in limited locations but has tons of smallies. They might just not know the difference. Quote
Bud Posted January 19, 2007 Posted January 19, 2007 I cannot say they won't be in ponds. Smallmouth like current and I have never seen a pond with current. Quote
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