Hi Zach, Welcome to BBG. I love crappie but Bg and RES fight a lot harder the crappie. I fish a light weight fly rod REs fight harder than BG. Either on on a F.R. puts a big bend in the rod. Beautiful Vibrations.
Most city lakes are stocked with blue gill. I see you are from Bartlesville, Lake Hudson, Osage State Park are both good lakes.
Red Ear hang close to the bottom not nesisarily deep usually along weed beds.
Warmouths like rocky areas and are usually close to bottom
They like minnow paterns.

http://www.aquamaxbass.com/aqua_man_02.html
Check out this site when "Bob" The pond boss king say use this for big fish. I use this lol

Zach
Don't get to worked up about you fish. The HBG produce 90% male. I found this out after I stocked my pond. I found a fish supplier down here by me and I add 100 6" long BG. With a small pond like you and I have we can fish out the ones we don't want and have fun doing it

The Texas Fish Stock ( I think ) they're in Bryan Texas got 4 to 6" for 45cent each. I'd go to Overton now for any fish I buy. Give them a call. I know they have them

Post photos of the fish and I'll give them a look.

Welcome to the group.  Have fun share stories.

Thanks for the question Zach but I don't have a taste for Bowfin. Although many folks in my native Louisiana will eat them, we always release Bowfin.

Zach I filet 95% of the gills I catch and scale a few to fry whole for family that prefer them that way. As for the limit, North Carolina has a 30 Bream limit per person per day for a combination of all species. My dad and nephew are visiting this month so that accounts for 90. I can filet 30 fish an hour so I spend many evenings @ my fish cleaning station. Full moon is today, June 15th! I find the fishing to be better around the full moon but not all folks would agree. Thanks for your comments and good luck to you.

I release anything over 1.5 pounds in an effort to catch a record someday. Hand size or a bit bigger is what I keep. But in my opinion some of the smaller gills must be harvested for a good balance in a particular area.

Afternoon Zach, all of my fish have been in 1 to 5 feet of water using crickets. I fish brackish rivers in the flooded cypress banks. We caught some more nice gills this morning before the wind jumped above 20 mph. Thanks for the questions.