As for my experience with RES, I only catch a few each year. I've stocked them a number of times, and I see really big ones spawning every season. For some reason they don't seem to have any significant population, and I don't know why. But, yet when I do catch one, it is "whoa, strap on the safety belt.". We almost always throw them back, so we sure aren't over fishing them.
Here is one that I took out last year that had fin rot.
RES As I look out at the blowing snow, and the thermometer is showing 16 degrees, maybe I'm on the northern boundary of where they will thrive.
