Hey Blaine, no expert here, just my observations;
I have a hole in Alabama that someday will be a trouphy RES pond (when the rains return). This last 18 months I kept a 150 gal. rubbermaid with lots of rocks, 100-300 crawfish, 100-300 grass shrimp, snails, fatheads, Gams, and redworms in the gravel. Oh yeah, and 1 feisty male RES. He ate micro pellets when around 4", then refused 'em, preferring crickets and mealworms, then later just swam with snout down/tail up. He was hunting, sorta stalking. Every so often he'd go into a frantic chase and a grass shrimp would pop out of the water clearing the tank to land on my floor. At times I'd see him with a Fathead or Gam sticking out of his mouth. Other times, I'd find bits of 2" crawfish remains (though I rarely saw live crawdads). It wasn't until I released him and cleaned out the tank that I discovered the abundant population of forage. Astonishingly, the 150 gal was near a self sustaining eco-system! I fed the minnows and would add plants every month or 2 for the snails. I offerred fresh worms or crickets to RES yet he lost interest toward the end. He grew to be 10 3/4" in 18 months; I didn't weigh him for fear of stressing him, yet he was chunky and had a territorial attitude; would attack my hand when working in his water!
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j25/SoSauty/PICT0209.jpgMy conclusion: RES prefer live food and sub surface feeding over pellets. A boutiful forage supply equates impressive RES growth. RES motivate crawdads & grass shrimp to stay hidden and will keep their populations in check, perhaps curtailing crawdad burrowing. In the absence of other large predators and in the prescence of sheltered habitat, many types of forage can sustain their populations.
For your pond Blaine, just as a thick FatHead population jumps starts LMB, I surmise that a thick snail population jump started your RES.
Pleasure to see your young buddie happy & confident about fishing.
