Pond Boss Forums FISH & FISHING Show off your catch A few RES from this week

I believe I've caught 2 in the last 20 years.

Shorty, everytime I see the pics of your res it makes me wanting mine to grow bigger faster. The ones @ my place grow way slower than the cnbg, but I hope someday they will outgrow those cnbg. Please continue posting your fish pics along with your experiences.

Thanks
Tracy

One from tonight on a piece of nightcrawler, micro jig, and slip bobber. (female RES)

Beautiful fish.

Another beauty Shorty!

What a chunk, nice!

Love the micro jig!

Great Shorty!

Keep it up!

You da redear king!

This upsets me. LOL.... I have done what I think as a pretty good job taking care of my pond sense I bought it in 2009. I got over a pound BG I have 4 to 5 pound HSB, I have almost 5 lbs bass..... But these fricken RES are killing me...... We can catch 3 and 4 inchers on worms but I haven't caught a nice big one in 3 years I bet.... I can't figure out if I've lost them all to the Heron or if I just can't catch any in my 1 acre pond.... Ughhh

RC

10-7/8" RES caught by my oldest boy. His first master angler.

Awesome!

Outstanding!

I want some of those!

10-1/8" and 1lb 3oz caught by my youngest boy. Also his first master angler.

Errrrrr.......

Those are some nice RES guys !!

One more from tonight, this might be same fish from 8/17 on this thread.

We are looking forward to your RES growing to 11". Nice fish indeed!

Well done Corey! Awesome and impressive

Here is the crazy part. I caught this RES and a couple others just like it in 2013... Now I can't catch a big one. If these few are still in my pond they got to be big! This was 3 years ago... I just cant find em... I know they spawn very shallow so I wonder if my bigger ones got nailed by the GBH.... I don't know...

Shorty, can you explain how you set up that slip bobber to catch the red ears? I have never used one before and would like to try and catch some of the red ears I stocked in my pond a few years ago. Pics would be helpful if not too much trouble. Or if their is a thread on the site already, maybe someone can post the link to it.

The basics, it works very well on BG and Crappie too.



I am using a clear casting bubble half filled with water as a slip bobber.

The rig:
Micro jig---20" to 24" leader----swivel---bobber stop/bead--casting bubble--bead/bobber stop. The beads and bobber stops allow for adjusting the depth of the micro jig. It doesn't need to be all that fancy, the key to catching RES is fishing on or near the bottom slowly.

It is a variant of the rig pictured on top with a micro jig replacing the fly and bobber stops/beads added to make the casting bubble into a slip bobber.

What Shorty did not say is he takes the big plastics in the picutre and cuts them up into the small plastic that is on the jig head.

A small pair of sharp scisors works well to cut the plastics up.

I started doing this after Shorty showed this a while back and like it. I do not use the stop beads but think I need to. I just bounce it off the bottom but I think at times I need to be leaving the bait stay still longer or positioned just above the bottom. The stop beads properly positioned would allow me to do this.

The advantage to this as opposed to just casting the jig head alone is that the casting bubble allows the light bait to be cast almost anywhere a person is capable of casting a heavier bait. I also cast just the jig as pictured without the casting bubble, but a person is highly limited as to where the small, light bait can be cast. Also with the casting bubble acting as a slip bobber, it is heavy enough that you can let the bait sink, then slowly work it towards the shore by lifting the bait off the bottom, repeat as it moves toward shore. The casting bubble half filled with water is heavy enough to allow you to "work" the light jig off the bottom without it coming directly back to you.

Thanks for the info Shorty. How far apart do you typically put the bobber stops?

That's the exact rig Shorty hooked me up with, and although I've not targeted the RES yet, it was LETHAL on my BG! And that's just using a piece of plastic as seen in his photo. Caught over a dozen before having to replace it,,,, with just another piece of plastic .

I now refer to it as "Shorty's Rig"

I'm going to pick up the stuff to make up the rig and give it a shot. I'm just really curious if any of the red ears have survived the past couple of winters in my pond. My pond is pretty blue gill heavy, so hopefully I can sneak this past them and catch a red ear or two if they are still around. Thanks for the advice guys.

I think you nailed one problem catching the RES. If you have a healthy population of BG for LMB forage with all class sizes, getting the bait past the hungry BG so a persnickety RES has time to decide to take it is a major problem.