Dave in my main 3 acre pond out of hundreds and hundreds of BG I catch each year I am lucky if I catch 2 or 3 RES. I have been putting fingerling RES out of this forage pond in the main pond trying to bring their numbers up in relation to the BG population. They are tough to catch when in with a mixed population of fish.

Now in this forage pond where RES are the only sunfish (except for a few GSF that I remove when I catch) I can catch them. It still is not particularly easy compared to BG, but where they are the only fish it helps.

My theory is that in a pond full of hungry BG the more persnickety RES simply do not get to the bait in time. Or when they do they are a lot more picky about taking it. In this pond when I catch a RES by hook and line it is usually a small tug, another small tug (kind of like a tiny fish is messing with the bait) then once they have "tasted" it they take the bate. Seems like for me and the bait I use at least it is rarely just a full on strike like a BG or GSF would do.

In my RES dedicated one acre pond I should have several hundred catch-able size RES by now and stocked 90 SMB. Fishing to sample for the RES I caught two SMB. Go figure.


John

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