Interesting article.
In my
sediment pond the initial stocking was 175 fingerling RES and 100 CNBG (FHM had been added earlier as soon as there was water in the pond).
According to that article most if not all the hybrids produced in that pond should be RESxGSF. Not sure where the GSF even came from as none were supposedly stocked. The sediment pond gets high water flows at times and is turbid with the high flows then clears up. I have assumed the high numbers of hybrids produced in the sediment pond was due to the limited partner availibility of the GSF along with turbid water (to perhaps make species determination more difficult).
In my
forage pond supposedly only RES (and FHM) were stocked but in this stocking the fingerlings I got were terrible. I hand sorted them and they contained numerous hybrids with GSF parentage. I sorted out all the hybrids and put in the pond only the ones large enough I could positively identify as pure RES. But that was early in my pondmeister days and I was not nearly as proficient at separating out pure RES from hybrids or GSF as I am today. So either I let a GSF or hybrid slip through (very possible) or however a GSF got in my sediment pond they also got into my forage pond. Whatever the case was, I also ended up producing lots of RESxGSF hybrids in my forage pond. As I raised fingerlings I transferred both the RES and the hybrids over to my main pond.
So I know my main pond has numerous hybrids with RES parentage.
I was under the assumption that most of the hybrids from my sediment pond were CNBGxGSF but if the article you linked is accurate they should mostly be RESxGSF. I do not really believe that though because I often see in the hybrids the wide vertical bands that are more similar to my CNBG than a RES.
So without some DNA testing I may never know.
I do know that I like the hybrids, whatever the parentage is. They grow well (pellet hogs just like GSF), fillet well and fight well. Early on in my main 3 acre pond I had a small number of hybrids from my original stocking (was supposed to be all BG but 30 or 40 hybrids slipped in the stock). I pretty much fished them out (the article is correct about hybrids being easily caught) and transferred them to my old 1 acre pond (kind of a trash fish pond), thinking they were undesirable. About the time I could not catch any more I decided I really did like the hybrids after all. I could always catch them when nothing else wanted to bite.
So when I started getting naturally produced hybrid fingerlings from my forage and sediment ponds, I transferred them to my main pond along with pure RES and CNBG. So I have went from trying to get rid of hybrids in my main pond to stocking them on purpose.
Keep in mind I like fishing for pan fish. If I never had a LMB over 2# that would be ok with me. So the hybrids as pan fish go are just fine with me.
I can not tell you anything about the fillets on a RES. I think I cleaned one a couple years back that got gut hooked but because of low initial stocking of RES in my main pond I always return them to the water. The idea of having RES and raising fingerlings in my forage pond and sediment ponds was to increase the number of RES in my main pond by supplemental stocking transfers. It is working because I am starting to catch a RES once in a while in my main pond now.
