Hi, IdahoCarpKiller. I did lots of freshwater spearing, ... but in Russia). Tastiest of all was pike perches and pikes (to my taste). Pikes tend to stay either at bottom under kelp or mid-water in kelp or any vegetation to ambush their prey from down under. Pike perches are predators too, but they prefer to hide and wait under sunken trees/tree branches. Same goes for catfish, which don't grow as big as in Europe here, but I assume are as tasty (again to my taste). In daytime catfish likes to stay deep most of the time in dark pits in sunken trees in backwaters, but sometimes come up and rests under grass roofs that take shape on surface in backwaters. I also liked hunting chubs - those stay in sunken trees too or often just under the river banks in grass, so you have to crawl towards them from depth slowly.
In general freshwater fish like saltwater fish like structure or any kind of objects that they can hide in (just like men prefer to sit under a tree if there is one in an open field). So the method that works with most fish is to dive a few yards away from the spot and then crawl slowly towards it (often with a flashlight cause it is too dark). Or to dive down and lie motionless for fish to come and check you out - works best with breams which are very spooky and travel in schools up and down the current. Yet another method is just dive down the current and shoot from hip - works best with pikes. Cheers.
