This site is great. So after 7 years what was the verdict on the RES? Maybe they just do better here in Tennessee. I have 2 ponds that I fish regularly. One pond is nearly 50/50 with native BG. They are swimming around and you see them with the regular BG, They hit artifical lures/jigs ( love a roadrunner). Another pond I fish, you can catch them really good in april and may when the are bedding. The rest of the time you might catch 5 shellcracker to every 50 BG.

The pond I just stocked here, has 400 RES and 300 CNBG. I see them everyday when I feed. Some eat pellets but most of my redear move in after the CNBG have feed and the FHM move in. My Redear pound on them till dark. The CNBG do not seem as interested in the minnows but devour the pellets.

One thing that I did different was I stocked the FHM and RES first. Then CNBG 6 weeks later, so maybe that helped them feed on pellets since they were the only fish in there, I do not know. But once you put CBNG in get your wallet out they feed like piranha's