I have been fishing lake Granbury using live perch around the 4-6 in range larger size. I am fishing them under a bobber in 6-8 ft of water. Fishing about 5 ft deep using big bobbers so i know the perch can't pull the under as that are homemade. But what happens is something will come along and slam the bait and bobbers disappears for about 2 seconds the pops back up. Whatever it is will do this over and over until it kills the perch then will not touch it anymore. There are no teeth marks so I can rule out gar. No damages to the bait like no scales missing no fin damage. I just can figure out what is killing the bait then not eating it just killing it. Any one else ever had this happen or any ideas on what could be doing this?

I got nothin' . . . . .






God Bless !

You don’t think the perch could briefly take big bobber under? Where are you hooking the bait? What type of hook is being used?

No theses bobbers are homade slip bobbers that are made out if pool noodles. I have caught a couple of 12-14 in crappie in them fishing larger minnows and they could barely pull the under. #5 circle hook through the back tail area

When the bobber goes down,...set the hook.

Good chance it's small catfish !

You might try attaching a small stinger treble hook to the bait. I am normally not a big fan of table hooks, but it drives me crazy when I can’t figure out what is messing with my bait. Are there turtles around?

Turtles would be my guess too.

I think a turtle would eat it. We used to have turtles eat on the fish we had on a stringer attached to the side of a jon boat back in the day. Also caught plenty of turtles on trotlines and found half eaten fish on them.