Two South Dakota scuba divers and their wives headed out on July 6 for a day of diving and boating on Pickerel Lake. The 1,000-acre lake situated close to Webster, South Dakota, is spring fed and a well-liked spot for boaters.
“It was the July 4th weekend and there have been loads of different boats round, and the water wasn’t tremendous clear,” Jason DeRoy tells Out of doors Life. “My spouse, Kelli, and Scott and Amber Steffensen, have been in our group. Scott and I went overboard that afternoon with scuba gear to spear some fish. There was about 4 ft of visibility once I obtained to the underside in 15 ft of water.”
DeRoy says he was close to some deep weed beds, and there have been a whole lot of small bluegills round him.
Picture courtesy Jason DeRoy
“They have been post-spawn fish, and most have been little 6-inchers,” says DeRoy, {an electrical} contractor from Clear Lake. “Bluegills shrink back from scuba bubbles. However if you happen to wait patiently, they get curious and are available nearer. I might see one bluegill was bigger than the others, and when the little ones obtained near me, the massive one got here nearer, too. When he was 4 ft away, I obtained an excellent shot on him by means of his head.”
The spear from DeRoy’s compressed air gun handed utterly by means of the panfish. He was mid-way by means of his dive, so he speared just a few extra smaller panfish after which returned to his boat as a rain storm raged overhead.
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When he took a better take a look at the massive bluegill, he seen it was tagged. He put the fish on ice in a single day, after which had it weighed the following day on a grocery retailer’s licensed scale in Clear Lake. It weighed precisely 1 pound. DeRoy then contacted South Dakota Sport, Fish and Parks biologist Mark Ermer on the Webster workplace.
Picture courtesy Jason DeRoy
“Mark was fairly excited in regards to the tagged bluegill,” DeRoy mentioned. “The state had tagged it in June 2020 when it was 6.5-inches lengthy. It had grown to 10 5/8s inches, which he thought was a reasonably good development charge.”
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The 1-pound bluegill has been licensed by the state as a brand new file in its “unrestricted” division. This consists of fish taken by different strategies apart from rod-and-reel (spearing, snagging, and bowfishing, for instance).
“I’m going to have an actual pores and skin mount fabricated from the bluegill,” says DeRoy.
