Unless you are a purist, smallmouth bass are IMHO more fun to catch than trout. The techniques for presentation, retrieve and hooking are much different and small mouth don't ever give up and surf. The real problem for trout fishermen is going to be predation. Smallmouth are terrific predators and primarily eat other fish. A substantial smallmouth population can decimate other species. To reduce smallmouth predation on trout there would have to be sunfish, but bluegill are also great predators. So...it's a trade off.