I have a .6 acre pond and put in 250 RES the first year and then 25 SMB the following year. My RES weren't feed trained, but were genetically selected from parents that took to feed. So that may have helped. With that said, they didn't seem interested in feed until I began throwing Optimal. They trained within a week!! On this past Monday night, I made 9 casts. I caught 8 RES between 10.25" and 10.75". Up here in Nebraska where we are on the northern range for RES, those were all Master Anglers. On the other cast I made I caught a plump 13" SMB.
Also of note, I stocked Fathead Minnows before I stocked RES. Without predation, they exploded in numbers. They are still present in HUGE numbers. Even with all of those FHM, my RES feed trained easily on Optimal. And recently I've added in Optimal Bass and my SMB have slowly began to feed train themselves.
