Cat fished into the night today using both cut bait and whole (small) blue gill as bait. Wasnt a very active day, the turbines were spinning against us today...night fell, decided to call it. Reeled back in the whole BG...and its eyes were GONE! Nasty coz id only hooked it around the spine, probably could have survived but I don't understand? What fish eats the eyes but nothing else??

Was it missing scales or injured in any way other than missing eyes? Large catfish and bass both can produce enough force to suck the eyes out of a bluegill. I wouldn't be surprised if a large crawdad could pluck the eyes out either. I found one that either a large catfish or bass (most likely a bass as the catfish tend to cause more severe injuries than a bass), had very recently tried to eat and mostly removed one of the bluegill's eyes. 

 

I have caught my fair share of fish as a youngster using eyeballs when out of worms. Mainly trout and bass. That being said, I agree with bluebasser. Crawdads would be my #1 suspect if the bluegill looked unharmed other than missing eyes. Throw out a craw trap with the same bait and see what ends up in it. Could be a good way to learn more about your fishing area. You could even catch some appetizers for dinner 

On 5/29/2017 at 1:24 AM, Bluebasser86 said:

Was it missing scales or injured in any way other than missing eyes? Large catfish and bass both can produce enough force to suck the eyes out of a bluegill. I wouldn't be surprised if a large crawdad could pluck the eyes out either. I found one that either a large catfish or bass (most likely a bass as the catfish tend to cause more severe injuries than a bass), had very recently tried to eat and mostly removed one of the bluegill's eyes. 

 

No injuries outside of missing eyes

 

Chupacabra