Fishhead, my experience is exactly the opposite of Bill's. I originally stocked the same amount of pure green sunfish as bluegill and about 1/4 that amount of HBG. The difference in our ponds is the predator. In addition of SMB, we have LMB. I think this has made all of the difference.
Even though we actually stocked pure green sunfish, they are virtually gone from our lake now. These fish were stocked in 2000. We have had an almost straight line decrease in green sunfish.
We have never sampled, in any manner, young HBG even though I've seen them actually bring off a hatch. I've always thought that the HBG would dominate the spawning beds. At least in our experience, this hasn't happened. Maybe ewest can shed some light on this. It appears that HBG look different enough from pure BG that given a choice, the female BG choose male BG.
I personally love HBG but know that we will loose them unless I can find some big enough to survive LMB predation. For me, it isn't an either/or situation with HBG and BG. I like them both. It's a matter of being with LMB, we don't get any HBG reproduction.
