Considered by many to be the sportiest freshwater fish. Small mouth are known for their fighting stamina and astounding leaping ability. Like largemouth, they will take almost any kind of lure or bait, but they generally prefer smaller sizes. Favorites include jigs, crankbaits, spinners, streamer flies, shiner minnow, crayfish, hellgrammites, leeches, and nightcrawlers.
Smallmouth like clean, clear water. They are found in all types of natural and manmade lakes, but are most common in mesotrophic lakes and mid-depth reservoirs. Smallmouth also thrive in river and streams with moderate current. Seldom are they found in small ponds, lakes shallower than 25 feet, or any water that is continuously murky or polluted. They do not compete well with other predatory fish.Located in Canada, United States and northeastern MexicoIt was introdused worldwide in nearly all of Mexico, and south into Central and South America.
Crayfish are the favored food, but smallmouth also eat larval and adults insects, frogs, and tadpoles, and a variety of small fish.
Smallmouth live up to 18 years in the North, seldom longer than 7 years in the South. But southern smallmouth grow much faster.
