Big Strawberry smallmouth

[Fishrmn]

Few, if any, of the smallies caught every year are harvested. They are all released. As for all of the things that tomegun mentions as food for the smallies, that's a pretty good list. The problem isn't for the smallies big enough to eat all of those things. The problem is for the smallmouth fry. They aren't big enough to eat chubs, kokanee, shiners, trout, cutthroat, and crawdads. There aren't enough bugs small enough for them to eat from now until the middle of May for them to survive.

Has anyone EVER caught a smallmouth less than 6 inches long in Strawberry? The ones that get planted by bucket biologists do really well. There's no disputing that. But the adults spawn, the eggs hatch, and the fry die before they see the bugs come back in spring. As long as people plant smallmouth bass in Strawberry there will be a few very nice adult smallmouth there. There won't be any great number of smallmouth in Strawberry though. They don't survive from fry to adult there.

10,000 smallies in the "Berry" would eat food that would be utilized by other fish. There is no point to planting smallies in Strawberry. Strawberry is the reserve population of genetically pure, Bear Lake Cutthroat trout. The USFW Service and the endangered species act, and all of the requirements of it, will prevent Strawberry from being anything but what it is.
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