What is the round goby story in the Great Lakes?
An invasion that rewired a fishery. Round gobies — bottom-dwelling invaders from the Black/Caspian region — exploded across the Great Lakes and connected waters from the 1990s on, and smallmouth converted to them wholesale: in invaded waters gobies now dominate adult diets, and the constant high-calorie bottom buffet is widely credited with the exceptional growth and body condition of modern Great Lakes smallmouth. The relationship cuts both ways — gobies are also devastating nest raiders that swarm unguarded beds within seconds. For anglers the message is blunt: on goby water, a brown-green bottom-hugging profile (goby-pattern tube, ned, drop shot) is matching the hatch.
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?
- 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?
- Do smallmouth eat sunfish, young suckers — or other bass?
- Will a smallmouth eat frogs, mice, fish eggs or a dead baitfish?
Same topic, other species
- What size minnows and shad do crappie prefer? — Crappie
- How big a bait can a largemouth take? — Largemouth Bass
- How big a prey fish can a muskie swallow? — Muskellunge (Muskie)
- Do perch really eat each other? — Yellow Perch
- How big a prey can a pike really swallow? — Northern Pike
- What does a stream rainbow actually eat day to day? — Trout (Rainbow · Brook · Lake)
- Why do cisco and smelt lakes grow the biggest walleye? — Walleye