Hmmm ... again this is news to me. I would just say that BG-RES even if they are 97% male still need a predator. They will reproduce way too much without predator fish. Also, in a case where they are stocked with other species that will readily mix with them, their offspring will exhibit BG-RES characteristics. Where big BG-RES males dominate spawning habitat, there could be alot of that going on.
Just to give you an idea of how prolific lepomis species are ... RES which are considered low among lepomis for reproductive potential are stocked in Michigan DOW ponds at the rate of 5 pairs to the acre in the spring. On average by fall there is a crop of 25 to 30 THOUSAND 1" to 3" RES for stocking into Michigan lakes. So high reproduction even from RES which are considered low reproducers among lepomis species.
How many lakes are stocked in Michigan with RES? How long will they survive the winters in Mi since they are s Southern fish?
I get calls from people in Michigan wanting to stock RES and I try to discourage them from doing that because they won't do well and their self-sustaining ability is severely limited due to the length of the winters in Mi. Here, look at this USGS map showing the distribution of RES in Michigan and the number of fish found at each location.
https://nas.er.usgs.gov/viewer/omap.aspx?SpeciesID=390You will probably notice that there is one location way north in Michigan. I highly doubt that the 1 representative sample was correctly identified, or if it was correctly identified, how likely was it to be a fish that was bucket stocked earlier that year and that it didn't survive the winter?
Dr. Dave Willis has examples of Pumpkinseed Sunfish overpopulating in ponds that had SMB as the apex predator, and the Pumpkinseed Sunfish only spawn once a year...... So, you are absolutely correct in saying that Lepomis species are very prolific.
![[Linked Image from lh6.ggpht.com]](https://lh6.ggpht.com/_6_-SgakQ9co/S3Nx1jGAJWI/AAAAAAAABKU/DJIy4ZnF1t0/s800/I_subscribe.jpg)
