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.
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?
- 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
- Why do such tiny jigs catch such big crappie? — Crappie
- Do big largemouth only eat big baits? — Largemouth Bass
- How often does a muskie eat? — Muskellunge (Muskie)
- How does a shiner or shad forage base change the game? — Yellow Perch
- Dead or alive — does a pike care? — Northern Pike
- What do lake trout eat? — Trout (Rainbow · Brook · Lake)
- What size bait should I use for walleye? — Walleye