Theo,
Really funny post!
The real version of the story is that the landowner started with a lot more than 300 fish, and eventually brought me all of his bigger ones. Definitely feed trained, but these bigger ones were still finding some natural feeds i.e. insects landing on the water like grasshoppers and the infrequent snail here and there. I didn't realize it but he had brought me a couple of smaller fish as well. They actually probably varied from 5 to 8.5 inches and were in pretty good condition. I'm going to dedicate one of my lined ponds to age-1 RES this year and see if I can get some to turn to pellets. I haven't quite decided on the methodology. I'll probably start in a rubbermaid tank and use Bob's suggestions.
If I remember correctly at least two of the fish appeared to have bluegill genetics, which wouldn't be shocking considering the original source.
