Most of the literature I have seen says that hybridization of various memebers of the Lepomis genus is quite common. However it's more common when one of the two species is rare or spawning substrata is limited. One of my ponds is a .62 acre pond that cries out for redears due to the mulitude of snails. Unfortunately I attempt to sell bluegills in a niche market, and my customers do not want hybrids. I just don't want to take the chance of them hybridizing although I'm sure the offspring would of large size.

I have a few natural lakes near me where redear/bluegill hybrids are quite common.

If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.