I've only been raising HBG for a little over a year now, so I'm certainly no expert, but I'll weigh in on mike's photos.
Numbers 1 and 4 appear to me to be HBG, no question. Number 2 looks like a mature, male BG. It has the vertical bars, the black tipped 'shoulder scales", a pronounced opercular flap, and a distinct black spot near the end of it's dorsal fin. The only concern I have with it's identification is that it seems to have a rather large mouth. Hmmm... Number 3 seems to give me the most trouble..., the markings say HBG, but it seems to be more "slender", like a GSF. Nah, I'm gonna go with HBG on this one too.....
Yup, no purebread bg has that large of mouth. And #3 is a hybrid for sure, not even close to slender enough. Most look like they have some RES in them also. But when you do hybrid you get genetic variations. I'd have to say you were sold hybrid bg.
I don't use hybrid bg because they are notorious for ending with thier generation. Offspring are iffy, usually duds. Then all the good fish are caught up or die and you are stuck with duds. Most of my customers want a self sustaining population. My guy is grumbling now he never thought he would have to plant again, and that was over ten years ago. But he has to badly and knows it. A pond full of stunted bg is not much fun after some time. I would use both pumpkinseed and especially cnb, but they are unavailable in my area for a decent price and customers just don't want to pay double or triple for them over RES.
