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 located near Webster, South Dakota, is spring fed and a popular spot for boaters.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the July 4th<\/sup> weekend and there were plenty of other boats around, and the water wasn\u2019t super clear,\u201d Jason DeRoy tells Outdoor Life. <\/em>\u201cMy wife, Kelli, and Scott and Amber Steffensen, were in our group. Scott and I went overboard that afternoon with scuba gear to spear some fish. There was about four feet of visibility when I got to the bottom in 15 feet of water.\u201d<\/p>\n DeRoy says he was near some deep weed beds, and there were hundreds of small bluegills around him.<\/p>\n Photo courtesy Jason DeRoy<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n \u201cThey were post-spawn fish, and most were little 6-inchers,\u201d says DeRoy, an electrical contractor from Clear Lake. \u201cBluegills shy away from scuba bubbles. But if you wait patiently, they get curious and come closer. I could see one bluegill was larger than the others, and when the little ones got close to me, the big one came nearer, too. When he was four feet away, I got a good shot on him through his head.\u201d<\/p>\n The spear from DeRoy\u2019s compressed air gun passed completely through the panfish. He was mid-way through his dive, so he speared a few more smaller panfish and then returned to his boat as a rain storm raged overhead.<\/p>\n Read Next: <\/strong>The Ultimate Guide to Spearfishing<\/a><\/p>\n When he took a closer look at the big bluegill, he noticed it was tagged. He put the fish on ice overnight, and then had it weighed the next day on a grocery store\u2019s certified scale in Clear Lake. It weighed exactly 1 pound. DeRoy then contacted South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks biologist Mark Ermer at the Webster office.<\/p>\n Photo courtesy Jason DeRoy<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n \u201cMark was pretty excited about the tagged bluegill,\u201d DeRoy said. \u201cThe state had tagged it in June 2020 when it was 6.5-inches long. It had grown to 10 5\/8s inches, which he thought was a pretty good growth rate.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.outdoorlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/SD_bluegill_record_speared_3.jpg?w=960\")