Hey, T.

I know there are a lot of regional differences in what we call fish and also lots of colloquial names, but I think redear sunfish and shellcrackers are the same thing in my book. I've heard in some areas "shellcracker" is somewhat of a generic term for sunfish, so that may be where the confusion lies.

I've yet to hear of a single person express a reason that redears are a negative in this sort of situation. I think I'm relatively safe in saying that they are a good fish for a situation like yours. I'm not an expert in the numbers game(how many to stock), but I love the way a RES fights, and I think they're stunningly beautiful fish during the spawn. I'm a big fan. What's your region again?

Holding a redear sunfish is like running with scissors.