TJ, I had a very short conversation with Jerry Hartly when he (and I think it was Jeff that was with him but unsure of that) delivered the fish. I mentioned what I was doing with the pond (RES and now SMB) and that I was over stocking it and intended to take out some of the SMB as they reached 12" to transfer to my main pond. I told him of my concern that the FHM might not be enough to sustain them to that size and also mentioned that I did feed and had been feeding the FHM to that point.
This is what he said to me best I can remember. He said the fish he delivered were all the same age and came from the same batch of breeder fish (60 6-9" and 40 4-6"). He said the difference in size was that one batch of fish was in an environment where they had lots more natural forage so they grew quicker. He said that both ponds were fed and that the SMB would take easily to feed. He suggested I order a ton of feed from his feed supplier which was a sinking feed and feed it (which I did not do). He said if I would throw a pile of it out in a foot of water that in a few minutes it would be black with SMB feeding on the pile of feed.
That is what I remember of the conversation. Take it for what it is worth. From what I gather from my conversation and what you said Jeff told you I would guess they feed the forage in the ponds where they raise the fingerlings. So not specifically feed trained, from what Jerry Hartly said to me they must naturally take to the feed that is being fed to the pond (to the forage fish I would assume). This is speculation on my part. You would have to confirm that. It sounds like they specifically do not feed train the SMB, but at least in the case of the fish I got the pond was being fed and Jerry Hartly was satisfied the fish had been eating feed.
That is all I know and a little bit more.
