Maybe the season???? Up till Saturday I had caught a grand total of 4 RES, not counting a couple of 2" ones caught in a cast net. Saturday evening about an hour and a half before sundown cast out a small plastic jig to catch some more 4-5" BG to put in the old pond (the one with the GSF). Did decent on the BG catching about 20 from 3"-8.
But the surprising catches were 4 RES. Biggest 9 1/4 and smallest about 6. Only took a picture of one of them, pictured below. Other picture is the type jig I was using. Caught everything in the shallow area of the pond that had gravel bottom designed for spawning. Had been so dry and water low this summer the area was covered with FA, but recent rains raised water level and was able to fish it. The BG seem to love to hang out in this area with large numbers there when I feed around the shore line. Cast the jig out and retrieved just fast enough to keep it out of the FA on the bottom but not so fast to bring it to the surface, trying to keep it a foot or two under water. My assumption is they were in this shallow area (most of it 2-5' deep) feeding on snails and critters amongst the FA. I didn't think they liked artificial lures all that much, but all 8 that I have caught have been on artificial of different types. Any time I actually tried fishing for RES, never caught any.
