What do young smallmouth eat before they switch to fish and craws?
They climb a ladder: fry start on zooplankton, shift to aquatic insect larvae — mayfly and dragonfly nymphs, hellgrammites, midges — and then add small crayfish and fish as their mouths and speed allow, usually within the first couple of years. Two angling echoes persist: river smallmouth of all sizes keep sipping insects opportunistically (why a hex or mayfly hatch can pull even good fish up), and heavy insect years can leave mid-size fish stuffed and indifferent to big baits. If the lake is "rising" with bug activity at dusk and the bite dies on your jig, going small and slow is the translation.
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