I will catch one of my runts tonight, the runts I have were 1" long when I seined them out of the pond at the begining of July. To me it's not clear if the smaller RES from last years hatch are late spawn fish or just slow growers that prefered to stay hidden in the weeds rather than feed. I do have very limited spawning areas so my adult RES may have taken turns in the spawning area.
I will run a seine survey this weekend too and take some pictures. One thing to consider is that I have a "gazllion" GSH that hatched this spring that they should be competing for some of the same aquatic groceries that my small RES need.
