Last night we were on the South Fork of the Little Red River (Johnson Hole) collecting fish tissue samples for murcury testing for ADEQ. One of the fish collected was a 3 pound largemouth bass with a fishing line hanging out of her mouth and a noticeable bulge in her gut. While removing a fillet (for testing by ADEQ) I discovered the large bulge was a 6 inch bluegill. I just happen to cut into the bluegill while removing the fillet and saw that there was a small crayfish in the bluegill next to a small brim hook that was in the bluegill's gut!

So how did this happen? My guess is that an angler was fishing with a small crayfish on a small brim hook and he caught a decent sized bluegill. As he was reeling in his catch, a 3 pound bass snatched the struggling bluegill into his mouth. As the suprised angler fought the bass, the 4 pound mono on his rod snapped and the bass got an easy meal. As I was recreating this sinario with my office manager (who was helping record data), I realized that I was a big time fish nerd. She got a kick out of how excited I was to discover this.

I'm sure others have had similar experiences like this. Feel free to share them. This fish nerd wants to hear about it. Thanks.