Nice report, DK!! I recently did the exact same thing that you did. I accidentally got directly over a large bed of redear here on Lake Barkley and I could see them directly under my boat. They would not run out of their nests with the nightcrawler but gently pick the bait up and mouth it. If you couldn't see them do this, you had no clue they were even fooling with the bait.

Very intelligent fish and challenging to say the least.