Smallmouth
Bass.
Smallmouth bass (micropterus dolomieu) are, like largemouth a member of the Centrarchidae family.
Many anglers consider them the hardest-fighting of all freshwater fish.
Several hatcheries raise smallmouth in ponds for stocking in private ponds; they do not require running water and can thrive in a pond that is properly stocked and managed. Smallmouth do not do well when stocked into ponds containing largemouth, as the largemouth will outcompete the smallmouth and prevent them from spawning successfully.
We raise our own strain of smallmouth, from brood stock we caught over four days of fishing at Dale Hollow Reservoir. Dale Hollow produced the world record smallmouth in 1955, an eleven-pound-fifteen-ounce fish. Our first crop of Dale Hollow smallmouth included several fish that hatched in April 2020 and were already ten inches long by November 2020, an unprecedented growth rate for hatchery-raised smallmouth. If the idea of growing an eight-pound smallmouth in your very own pond whets your fishing appetite, give us a call!