I would think that you would be fine with a RES and GSF mix. Heck I mixed RES, GSF and BG. Of course time will tell if I created toxic sunfish soup.
When I added the additional sunfish (RES and BG) I expressed concerns about cross hybridization and was told the same thing that Theo just told you. Some hybridization could occur but it shouldn't really be an issue. On the other had Shorty mentioned a pond or lake in which quite a bit of hybridization occurred so I don't know.
I added RES for the same reason you are considering it - snail patrol.
Also keep in mind that when the pond is at it's lowest level during the heat of the summer it would be very easy to seine it to remove fish if fishing wasn't controlling the population enough.
Theo made a great point several pages back about GSF being more like bass in behavior than like BG. GSF are highly aggressive and (for a sunfish) have huge mouths. It seems to me that if you are trying to raise "trophy" quality GSF, which IMHO would have to be over 1.5 lbs, you will have to manage specifically for that (much like Bruce does with his BG). Providing enough food (forage or sunfish chow) and proper culling will be a issue that you will have to work out.
This does sound like a great project.
Given how much my meager GSF fight I would imagine that a GSF that weighed over 1.5 lbs (on light tackle) would be a blast to catch.
If you proceed with this it will be very interesting to compare your results with DIED in a year or two. He has GSF at 1.25 lbs already. Like myself he added BG and RES and has gams by the thousands and is feeding in addition. In his pond GSF are the dominant predator. I am not sure if he is still thinking of adding bass or not. I would not be surprised at all if DIED were to catch a 1.5 pound GSF in the not too distant future.
My pond is a completely different situation since I have LMB and am focusing on getting their relative weight up and overall size up. Based upon what my neighbors have said my pond use to have LMB that were in the 4 to 5 pound range in it. But no one was monitoring what was being removed and I guess the big bass were taken out. All that has nothing to do with GSF, I guess the point that I was trying to make was that I will not be in the running for producing trophy GSF.
[Ya know I edited this post eight times to remove stupidity and it could probably use a ninth or tenth stupidity removal process. I just can't stop editing.
Put the mouse down and back away from the keyboard. "Word" can spell check and check for grammar, is there a program to scan a post for stupidity? - - Norton Anti Stupid Version 5.1 or something? Of course maybe I'm better off if such a program is not available. If the moderators used such a program to scan this forum probably 80% of my posts would be removed. Oh well, time for more coffee.]
