Originally Posted by jpsdad
Originally Posted by esshup
Originally Posted by jpsdad
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=390

You 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.

Esshup,

Here is the reference: https://www.michigandnr.com/publications/pdfs/DNRFishLibrary/TechnicalReports/TR2003-3.pdf

They have mostly stocked southern counties and nearer the great lakes. The ability to survive seems to be correlated to the number of frost-free days. I think you are right to discourage stocking them in ponds up there. Water that is a bit slower to freeze probably has the best chance. Best I can tell, they thought the efforts were worth it for the waters where they established.

Mostly, I thought it remarkable that they stock hatchery ponds with only 5 pairs of RES and get that level of production.

I also think it remarkable to harvest 400+ <10" BG-RES annually from a half-acre pond. Dang good recruitment if you ask me. Pretty interesting they'll take a bare hook too. Not nearly as picky as BG sometimes are. That's a good trait to have when one wants to limit numbers.

Got any pictures of your RES?

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