Do smallmouth eat sunfish, young suckers — or other bass?
All three, and all three are minor. Smallmouth forage skews small and slim — crayfish, gobies, shiners, young perch — and mostly under a quarter of the fish's own length, so deep-bodied, spiny sunfish are an awkward fit; they are eaten where weeds meet rock, but they never play the role bluegill play for largemouth. Young suckers, chubs and dace are river food: soft-rayed, cylinder-shaped and sharing the same riffles and pools, a regular find in stream fish and a rarity in lake fish. Cannibalism is real but small — fry and fingerlings of any bass, its own included, are taken when they are handy. None of these justifies a dedicated pattern; they simply explain why a small natural minnow profile works everywhere.
The full story
This answer is one piece of a longer lesson — setups, diagrams and the reasoning behind it.
More questions about Diet
- How important are crayfish to smallmouth, really?
- What is the round goby story in the Great Lakes?
- Do smallmouth feed on the surface?
- What do young smallmouth eat before they switch to fish and craws?
- Which baitfish matter most — smelt, alewife, perch?
- Why do smaller baits often outfish big ones for smallmouth?
- What do smallmouth eat in winter?
- Do smallmouth really eat leeches and hellgrammites?
- Will a smallmouth eat frogs, mice, fish eggs or a dead baitfish?
Same topic, other species
- Do crappie ever stop eating zooplankton? — Crappie
- In northern waters, do largemouth eat gobies, suckers or ciscoes? — Largemouth Bass
- What do muskie actually eat? — Muskellunge (Muskie)
- What do yellow perch actually eat? — Yellow Perch
- What do pike actually eat most? — Northern Pike
- How does a trout's diet change as it grows? — Trout (Rainbow · Brook · Lake)
- What do walleye mainly eat? — Walleye