Ed,
We sell them that size quite a bit for pond stocking. Most should sruvivie bass predation that size. They get really expensive if much larger. They are raised in the hatchery on feed, so they do just fine with the Stren feeder going off in the pond. Now if you're worried about bass predation and want to get them bigger that is another issue ut them in the cage first.
On the cage we use 1/4 inch mesh and make the lid the same so fed will go thru lid. We do it by hand b/c like you said the feeder will cast it all over. If you have a dock you can buy a much cheaper feeder that basically throws the food straight down into the cage.
The key is getting protein food that is at least 36% even better if 40% if cost efficeint. If you can get trout chow that will work as well.
Others chime in please I'm no expert on hybrids but know they do well in ponds with supplemental feeding with auto feeder and high protein food.
