Posted By: FishTheBite
Stillhouse Early Summer Payoff - 06/12/17 05:52 PM
41 kept and as many more released. Mostly bluegills but with some nice red ears mixed in. I would have stopped keeping at 25 but the wife was having a good time and she really likes to eat what she catches. They were very aggressive. Up sized hooks twice from an #8 to a #4 and some were still managing to swallow it. Even some of the smaller ones.
All caught on worms from 10' to 12' deep near the outside edge of weeds with either an associated ledge or woody cover.
Also had a strange experience with a nice largemouth and a smallish gill on a 1/0 circle hook. The fish ate the perch once and when I tightened down the perch just slipped out. It was almost completely scaled. I tossed right back in with the same perch and it was immediately taken again. Watched the line move and twitch for what seemed like several minutes. I was convinced it must be a decent cat or a gar. But it would never take all of the slack out of the line. I finally decide to slap the side of the boat in hopes of convincing it to swim away. The ruse worked. The fish was 20" and my bet guess is around four pounds. The battery in my scale was dead so I can't be sure. The fish was hooked in the gullet and I choose to cut the line instead of taking a chance on harming the fish. So don't let anyone tell you that a fish can't be hooked deep on a circle.