Mantua Killer

[fishmaniac]

Back on December 8, 2009 me and my buddy were fishin by the pipe on the east side of the lake and the only fish we caught was a 18" rainbow full of baby perch! Check out the pics...
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[michaelbolton]

Dude, you weren't lying, that thing was stuffed!!! Good catch
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[Kent]

Looks like at least some of the rainbows put a hurtin' on the minnows, not just the cutts (and of course all of the other usual predators).
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[Theekillerbee]

Talk about gluttony!
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[fishing4thehog]

WOW !!! looks like the trout will be good on the grill & you already have a ton of fish sticks.. [sly][sly][sly]
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[MacFisher]

Talk about hungry rainbow.
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[Fin-S-Fish]

I've seen lots of perch inside Mantua's rainbows this year but this one sure beats all of them! The most I had was like 5.........that's a whole PILE of perch! What the ......?! That is crazy! They used to have dime sized bluegills in them for the past 5 yrs. This year I have seen no dime sized bluegills just perch in all stages of meltdown. They are not eating plankton either. But I do see plenty of plankton swimming in all the holes when I look down. Still no bass showing either which is very weird. They seem to have extended lockjaw.

[fsh4fun05]

Maybe the bass are eating the small perch like the rainbows are and are not 'hungry' enough to bite a jig. I like to eat perch, I love to eat perch, but I think I have met my match! That's a dandy of a rainbow, catch one fish and two limits, lol.
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[Fin-S-Fish]

That could well be the case, because I know there is no shortage of bass in that pond for sure. It was weird since I've been expecting to see perch in bass for a long time but it was always dime sized or quarter sized gills on the menu for trout and bass. Maybe there was a poor bluegill year class this past summer since it warmed up very late.....not until june! I found bluegill beds in mid July which was the weirdest thing. Usually they go from mid may to the end of june with new nests every couple weeks. The size of the perch in the normally "dainty" rainbows is shocking still. Most often just zooplankton in rainbows for the most part and sometimes they get predatory.
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[eyechaser]

that is insane i have never seen anything like that! aswome report thanks
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[thefriends03]

I caught one around the same date out of there. It was a 14-15 incher and she had 15+ perch in her. The last picture is half of our keep from that day.
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[catfish-logic]

What a minnow munchin' perch killin' greedy eatin' son-of-a-fish!

I always thought that rainbows were wimps when it came to minnows. Sticking with the real small guys. I'm a......what do they call it.....ummmmmm......shocked![cool]
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