I've fished the New River in Va for the last 30 years. Smallmouth and redeye numbers are way down, and have been for years. Lots of Muskie though. State says they don't eat smallmouth but I don't believe it.
You can believe whatever you want. Muskies always get blamed when people can't catch fish. Yet some of the top smallmouth and walleye fisheries in the world have excellent Muskie fishing. Lake of the woods, lake st Clair, and a myriad of others. Test after test after study after study has been done on muskies all over the world where the stomach contents are flushed. I can't remember the number but it's usually a number like <3% of the contents are made up of gamefish. That includes bass, bluegill, crappie. The other 97% is soft rayed fish such as suckers, carp, shad, etc. along with frogs, snakes, ducklings, etc. Does a muskie eat a bass once every now and then? Sure they do? But have you ever seen a baby muskie? Bass eat the helll out of them too. It's a balance.
