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Soft plastics found in trout stomachs
Budd :
I'm a fisheries biologist with the State of Vermont's Fish & Wildlife Department. Last fall and early this spring I received a number of calls about large brown trout (that we stock in a nearby 2,200-acre lake) having very strange grubs or insect larvae in their stomach. Of course, without seeing the stomach contents, I couldn't comment on what the trout might have been eating, but I told the anglers to keep the stomachs next time they found such things when cleaning their fish. Over the winter ice-fishing season, and through this spring, several anglers brought stomachs from brown trout ranging from 2 to 10 pounds into the local baitshop. The owner of the shop put the stomachs in the freezer, then called me one day this spring when he had 8 or 10 stomachs in ziplock bags. I told him to thaw them out and I'd be down in an hour or so. I brought all my insect guides, minnow guides etc etc - anything I thought might help me identify the strange prey these brown trout were eating. But, when I got to the baitshop and picked up the first "grub", I started to laugh. When I told the baitshop owner it was a "senko", he immediately realized I was right and turned red, embarrassed he didn't realize it himself right away. Anyways, out of the 10 stomachs I examined that day with the strange "grubs" in them, every one of them turned out to be plastic baits of some sort. One stomach from an 8-pound brown trout had 14 different plastic lures in it, ranging from senkos to tube jigs to flukes to broken pieces of what looked like plastic worm bits. Now - this is what I think is happening. I'm also a bass fisherman, and I fish in our local Bassmasters club. So, I know how fast bass fisherman go through soft plastics. At the end of a day's fishing, whether for a tournament or just for fun, the floor of my boat and my friends boats are littered with soft plastics that are torn and won't stay on hooks anymore. Most ethical fisherman who care about the environment, the lakes they fish, and the fish they're after take those plastics home and dispose of them properly. However, I have personally witnessed countless times, fisherman tearing off a plastic worm and throwing it into the lake. Maybe sometimes the plastics blow out of the bass boats as they tear across the lake at 70mph. No matter how these plastics are getting into the lake, I have now seen first hand that trout WILL eat them. Not only do they eat them as they gently sway and sink to the bottom of an 80-foot deep lake, in my opinion they are also being picked up after they've reached the bottom. Brown trout will forage the bottom of lakes, and in the winter under the ice will do so in very shallow water even. Since seeing the plastics in the stomachs, I've spoken to more and more trout fisherman and I'm finding this is a much too common occurence - alot of the trout fisherman are getting brown trout with plastics in their stomachs in January, February, and March. Anyone who is familiar with Vermont knows that our bass fishing season ends in November, and that from December to mid-April our lakes are buried under 2 to 3 feet of ice, so these plastics being eating by brown trout are not fresh. It could also be that the plastics were picked up by the trout in the previous summer and fall, and haven't been digested or passed. This worries me even more since I don't know what the full impact of bass fisherman tossing their used plastics into the lake could be on the brown trout. So - to answer your question - YES trout WILL soft plastic baits, and rigging that way for them is likely a hot technique in certain situations to take them. But more importantly to the bass fisherman (and all plastic bait users) is DO NOT throw your used plastics in the water. If fish will hit them when they're on your hook, they certainly will hit them and swallow them when they're not ! For work, I will be making a targeted attempt to educate Vermont anglers on this issue. Please spread the word ! Shawn "Budd Cochran" wrote in message ... Greetings from the S.E. Utah desert country. Spent a few hours yesterday afternoon in the local mountains at a popular trout lake, Oowah Lake, near my home in Moab, UT. had considerable success in catching 1-3 pound Rainbows on red / white and black / white spoons, but my wife discovered something I though was rather odd. She rigged up with a small portion of a 6" Senko clone on an old but sharp Aberdeen hook and began getting solid bites. Exposing the hook point more got her five nice trout in about 30 minutes (she doesn't fish a lot) before a big one broke her line. I changed over to an Eagle Claw Tru-Turn and another chunk of the plastic worm and after 7 more fish ( I caught 10 on spoons) caught the biggest 'Bow of the afternoon, about 17 inches long. Ok, does anybody have any ideas about this? I've never heard of anything like this ... Trout on Bass lures. I'm gonna have to try it again. VBG All comments welcome. Budd |
Soft plastics found in trout stomachs
Reminds me of the story and picture I posted ast November of a bass with 19
plastic worms in its stomach http://fishing.about.com/cs/fishfact.../aa110303a.htm Ronnie http://fishing.about.com |
Soft plastics found in trout stomachs
Well, largemouth bass are commonly called "HAWGS!!!" right?
VBG Budd "RGarri7470" wrote in message ... Reminds me of the story and picture I posted ast November of a bass with 19 plastic worms in its stomach http://fishing.about.com/cs/fishfact.../aa110303a.htm Ronnie http://fishing.about.com |
Soft plastics found in trout stomachs
I caught a small bass a couple of months ago that had about 2/3 of a plastic
worm hanging out it's ass. Mark McCoybr McCoy's Market Bumpus Mills, Tennesseebr http://www.mccoysmarket.com |
Soft plastics found in trout stomachs
I caught a small bass a couple of months ago that had about 2/3 of a plastic
worm hanging out it's ass. Mark McCoybr McCoy's Market Bumpus Mills, Tennesseebr http://www.mccoysmarket.com |
Soft plastics found in trout stomachs
So what?
Is there any thing special with these items? Is there any demonstrated harm? Fish have eaten all sort of mankind's refuse in water bodies for centuries, so what? Maybe the plastics have been eaten and passed and eaten and passed time and time again, if so is this a big problem? The plastics came from stomachs of live fish that were eaten by humans, right? Are the plastics only found in 2-8 pound brown trout? Are they only found in Vermont's 2,200 acre lake? Your post raises lots of questions. If this is a "NEW" event occurring in multiple states in multiple water bodies with multiple species there may be a big problem causing loss of fish life or health and forecasting fishery declines. If these plastics are just starting to be accumulating in fish stomachs, it could forecast issues in years ahead. Has anyone heard of this quantity happening elsewhere? John -- Remove FLY to reply "Shawn" wrote in message ... Budd : I'm a fisheries biologist with the State of Vermont's Fish & Wildlife Department. Last fall and early this spring I received a number of calls about large brown trout (that we stock in a nearby 2,200-acre lake) having very strange grubs or insect larvae in their stomach. Of course, without seeing the stomach contents, I couldn't comment on what the trout might have been eating, but I told the anglers to keep the stomachs next time they found such things when cleaning their fish. Over the winter ice-fishing season, and through this spring, several anglers brought stomachs from brown trout ranging from 2 to 10 pounds into the local baitshop. The owner of the shop put the stomachs in the freezer, then called me one day this spring when he had 8 or 10 stomachs in ziplock bags. I told him to thaw them out and I'd be down in an hour or so. I brought all my insect guides, minnow guides etc etc - anything I thought might help me identify the strange prey these brown trout were eating. But, when I got to the baitshop and picked up the first "grub", I started to laugh. When I told the baitshop owner it was a "senko", he immediately realized I was right and turned red, embarrassed he didn't realize it himself right away. Anyways, out of the 10 stomachs I examined that day with the strange "grubs" in them, every one of them turned out to be plastic baits of some sort. One stomach from an 8-pound brown trout had 14 different plastic lures in it, ranging from senkos to tube jigs to flukes to broken pieces of what looked like plastic worm bits. Now - this is what I think is happening. I'm also a bass fisherman, and I fish in our local Bassmasters club. So, I know how fast bass fisherman go through soft plastics. At the end of a day's fishing, whether for a tournament or just for fun, the floor of my boat and my friends boats are littered with soft plastics that are torn and won't stay on hooks anymore. Most ethical fisherman who care about the environment, the lakes they fish, and the fish they're after take those plastics home and dispose of them properly. However, I have personally witnessed countless times, fisherman tearing off a plastic worm and throwing it into the lake. Maybe sometimes the plastics blow out of the bass boats as they tear across the lake at 70mph. No matter how these plastics are getting into the lake, I have now seen first hand that trout WILL eat them. Not only do they eat them as they gently sway and sink to the bottom of an 80-foot deep lake, in my opinion they are also being picked up after they've reached the bottom. Brown trout will forage the bottom of lakes, and in the winter under the ice will do so in very shallow water even. Since seeing the plastics in the stomachs, I've spoken to more and more trout fisherman and I'm finding this is a much too common occurence - alot of the trout fisherman are getting brown trout with plastics in their stomachs in January, February, and March. Anyone who is familiar with Vermont knows that our bass fishing season ends in November, and that from December to mid-April our lakes are buried under 2 to 3 feet of ice, so these plastics being eating by brown trout are not fresh. It could also be that the plastics were picked up by the trout in the previous summer and fall, and haven't been digested or passed. This worries me even more since I don't know what the full impact of bass fisherman tossing their used plastics into the lake could be on the brown trout. So - to answer your question - YES trout WILL soft plastic baits, and rigging that way for them is likely a hot technique in certain situations to take them. But more importantly to the bass fisherman (and all plastic bait users) is DO NOT throw your used plastics in the water. If fish will hit them when they're on your hook, they certainly will hit them and swallow them when they're not ! For work, I will be making a targeted attempt to educate Vermont anglers on this issue. Please spread the word ! Shawn "Budd Cochran" wrote in message ... Greetings from the S.E. Utah desert country. Spent a few hours yesterday afternoon in the local mountains at a popular trout lake, Oowah Lake, near my home in Moab, UT. had considerable success in catching 1-3 pound Rainbows on red / white and black / white spoons, but my wife discovered something I though was rather odd. She rigged up with a small portion of a 6" Senko clone on an old but sharp Aberdeen hook and began getting solid bites. Exposing the hook point more got her five nice trout in about 30 minutes (she doesn't fish a lot) before a big one broke her line. I changed over to an Eagle Claw Tru-Turn and another chunk of the plastic worm and after 7 more fish ( I caught 10 on spoons) caught the biggest 'Bow of the afternoon, about 17 inches long. Ok, does anybody have any ideas about this? I've never heard of anything like this ... Trout on Bass lures. I'm gonna have to try it again. VBG All comments welcome. Budd |
Soft plastics found in trout stomachs
So what?
Is there any thing special with these items? Is there any demonstrated harm? Fish have eaten all sort of mankind's refuse in water bodies for centuries, so what? Maybe the plastics have been eaten and passed and eaten and passed time and time again, if so is this a big problem? The plastics came from stomachs of live fish that were eaten by humans, right? Are the plastics only found in 2-8 pound brown trout? Are they only found in Vermont's 2,200 acre lake? Your post raises lots of questions. If this is a "NEW" event occurring in multiple states in multiple water bodies with multiple species there may be a big problem causing loss of fish life or health and forecasting fishery declines. If these plastics are just starting to be accumulating in fish stomachs, it could forecast issues in years ahead. Has anyone heard of this quantity happening elsewhere? John -- Remove FLY to reply "Shawn" wrote in message ... Budd : I'm a fisheries biologist with the State of Vermont's Fish & Wildlife Department. Last fall and early this spring I received a number of calls about large brown trout (that we stock in a nearby 2,200-acre lake) having very strange grubs or insect larvae in their stomach. Of course, without seeing the stomach contents, I couldn't comment on what the trout might have been eating, but I told the anglers to keep the stomachs next time they found such things when cleaning their fish. Over the winter ice-fishing season, and through this spring, several anglers brought stomachs from brown trout ranging from 2 to 10 pounds into the local baitshop. The owner of the shop put the stomachs in the freezer, then called me one day this spring when he had 8 or 10 stomachs in ziplock bags. I told him to thaw them out and I'd be down in an hour or so. I brought all my insect guides, minnow guides etc etc - anything I thought might help me identify the strange prey these brown trout were eating. But, when I got to the baitshop and picked up the first "grub", I started to laugh. When I told the baitshop owner it was a "senko", he immediately realized I was right and turned red, embarrassed he didn't realize it himself right away. Anyways, out of the 10 stomachs I examined that day with the strange "grubs" in them, every one of them turned out to be plastic baits of some sort. One stomach from an 8-pound brown trout had 14 different plastic lures in it, ranging from senkos to tube jigs to flukes to broken pieces of what looked like plastic worm bits. Now - this is what I think is happening. I'm also a bass fisherman, and I fish in our local Bassmasters club. So, I know how fast bass fisherman go through soft plastics. At the end of a day's fishing, whether for a tournament or just for fun, the floor of my boat and my friends boats are littered with soft plastics that are torn and won't stay on hooks anymore. Most ethical fisherman who care about the environment, the lakes they fish, and the fish they're after take those plastics home and dispose of them properly. However, I have personally witnessed countless times, fisherman tearing off a plastic worm and throwing it into the lake. Maybe sometimes the plastics blow out of the bass boats as they tear across the lake at 70mph. No matter how these plastics are getting into the lake, I have now seen first hand that trout WILL eat them. Not only do they eat them as they gently sway and sink to the bottom of an 80-foot deep lake, in my opinion they are also being picked up after they've reached the bottom. Brown trout will forage the bottom of lakes, and in the winter under the ice will do so in very shallow water even. Since seeing the plastics in the stomachs, I've spoken to more and more trout fisherman and I'm finding this is a much too common occurence - alot of the trout fisherman are getting brown trout with plastics in their stomachs in January, February, and March. Anyone who is familiar with Vermont knows that our bass fishing season ends in November, and that from December to mid-April our lakes are buried under 2 to 3 feet of ice, so these plastics being eating by brown trout are not fresh. It could also be that the plastics were picked up by the trout in the previous summer and fall, and haven't been digested or passed. This worries me even more since I don't know what the full impact of bass fisherman tossing their used plastics into the lake could be on the brown trout. So - to answer your question - YES trout WILL soft plastic baits, and rigging that way for them is likely a hot technique in certain situations to take them. But more importantly to the bass fisherman (and all plastic bait users) is DO NOT throw your used plastics in the water. If fish will hit them when they're on your hook, they certainly will hit them and swallow them when they're not ! For work, I will be making a targeted attempt to educate Vermont anglers on this issue. Please spread the word ! Shawn "Budd Cochran" wrote in message ... Greetings from the S.E. Utah desert country. Spent a few hours yesterday afternoon in the local mountains at a popular trout lake, Oowah Lake, near my home in Moab, UT. had considerable success in catching 1-3 pound Rainbows on red / white and black / white spoons, but my wife discovered something I though was rather odd. She rigged up with a small portion of a 6" Senko clone on an old but sharp Aberdeen hook and began getting solid bites. Exposing the hook point more got her five nice trout in about 30 minutes (she doesn't fish a lot) before a big one broke her line. I changed over to an Eagle Claw Tru-Turn and another chunk of the plastic worm and after 7 more fish ( I caught 10 on spoons) caught the biggest 'Bow of the afternoon, about 17 inches long. Ok, does anybody have any ideas about this? I've never heard of anything like this ... Trout on Bass lures. I'm gonna have to try it again. VBG All comments welcome. Budd |
Soft plastics found in trout stomachs
A handle, maybe?
Starter rope? (Sorry, couldn't resist.) Budd "MMccoy01" wrote in message ... I caught a small bass a couple of months ago that had about 2/3 of a plastic worm hanging out it's ass. Mark McCoybr McCoy's Market Bumpus Mills, Tennesseebr http://www.mccoysmarket.com |
Soft plastics found in trout stomachs
A handle, maybe?
Starter rope? (Sorry, couldn't resist.) Budd "MMccoy01" wrote in message ... I caught a small bass a couple of months ago that had about 2/3 of a plastic worm hanging out it's ass. Mark McCoybr McCoy's Market Bumpus Mills, Tennesseebr http://www.mccoysmarket.com |
Soft plastics found in trout stomachs
I think Shawn's point is that the plastics might cause the fish to not have
stomach room for normal food and starve to death because of it. I can see where it is possible and I'm not even a tree hugger. Budd "John" wrote in message ... So what? Is there any thing special with these items? Is there any demonstrated harm? Fish have eaten all sort of mankind's refuse in water bodies for centuries, so what? Maybe the plastics have been eaten and passed and eaten and passed time and time again, if so is this a big problem? The plastics came from stomachs of live fish that were eaten by humans, right? Are the plastics only found in 2-8 pound brown trout? Are they only found in Vermont's 2,200 acre lake? Your post raises lots of questions. If this is a "NEW" event occurring in multiple states in multiple water bodies with multiple species there may be a big problem causing loss of fish life or health and forecasting fishery declines. If these plastics are just starting to be accumulating in fish stomachs, it could forecast issues in years ahead. Has anyone heard of this quantity happening elsewhere? John -- Remove FLY to reply "Shawn" wrote in message ... Budd : I'm a fisheries biologist with the State of Vermont's Fish & Wildlife Department. Last fall and early this spring I received a number of calls about large brown trout (that we stock in a nearby 2,200-acre lake) having very strange grubs or insect larvae in their stomach. Of course, without seeing the stomach contents, I couldn't comment on what the trout might have been eating, but I told the anglers to keep the stomachs next time they found such things when cleaning their fish. Over the winter ice-fishing season, and through this spring, several anglers brought stomachs from brown trout ranging from 2 to 10 pounds into the local baitshop. The owner of the shop put the stomachs in the freezer, then called me one day this spring when he had 8 or 10 stomachs in ziplock bags. I told him to thaw them out and I'd be down in an hour or so. I brought all my insect guides, minnow guides etc etc - anything I thought might help me identify the strange prey these brown trout were eating. But, when I got to the baitshop and picked up the first "grub", I started to laugh. When I told the baitshop owner it was a "senko", he immediately realized I was right and turned red, embarrassed he didn't realize it himself right away. Anyways, out of the 10 stomachs I examined that day with the strange "grubs" in them, every one of them turned out to be plastic baits of some sort. One stomach from an 8-pound brown trout had 14 different plastic lures in it, ranging from senkos to tube jigs to flukes to broken pieces of what looked like plastic worm bits. Now - this is what I think is happening. I'm also a bass fisherman, and I fish in our local Bassmasters club. So, I know how fast bass fisherman go through soft plastics. At the end of a day's fishing, whether for a tournament or just for fun, the floor of my boat and my friends boats are littered with soft plastics that are torn and won't stay on hooks anymore. Most ethical fisherman who care about the environment, the lakes they fish, and the fish they're after take those plastics home and dispose of them properly. However, I have personally witnessed countless times, fisherman tearing off a plastic worm and throwing it into the lake. Maybe sometimes the plastics blow out of the bass boats as they tear across the lake at 70mph. No matter how these plastics are getting into the lake, I have now seen first hand that trout WILL eat them. Not only do they eat them as they gently sway and sink to the bottom of an 80-foot deep lake, in my opinion they are also being picked up after they've reached the bottom. Brown trout will forage the bottom of lakes, and in the winter under the ice will do so in very shallow water even. Since seeing the plastics in the stomachs, I've spoken to more and more trout fisherman and I'm finding this is a much too common occurence - alot of the trout fisherman are getting brown trout with plastics in their stomachs in January, February, and March. Anyone who is familiar with Vermont knows that our bass fishing season ends in November, and that from December to mid-April our lakes are buried under 2 to 3 feet of ice, so these plastics being eating by brown trout are not fresh. It could also be that the plastics were picked up by the trout in the previous summer and fall, and haven't been digested or passed. This worries me even more since I don't know what the full impact of bass fisherman tossing their used plastics into the lake could be on the brown trout. So - to answer your question - YES trout WILL soft plastic baits, and rigging that way for them is likely a hot technique in certain situations to take them. But more importantly to the bass fisherman (and all plastic bait users) is DO NOT throw your used plastics in the water. If fish will hit them when they're on your hook, they certainly will hit them and swallow them when they're not ! For work, I will be making a targeted attempt to educate Vermont anglers on this issue. Please spread the word ! Shawn "Budd Cochran" wrote in message ... Greetings from the S.E. Utah desert country. Spent a few hours yesterday afternoon in the local mountains at a popular trout lake, Oowah Lake, near my home in Moab, UT. had considerable success in catching 1-3 pound Rainbows on red / white and black / white spoons, but my wife discovered something I though was rather odd. She rigged up with a small portion of a 6" Senko clone on an old but sharp Aberdeen hook and began getting solid bites. Exposing the hook point more got her five nice trout in about 30 minutes (she doesn't fish a lot) before a big one broke her line. I changed over to an Eagle Claw Tru-Turn and another chunk of the plastic worm and after 7 more fish ( I caught 10 on spoons) caught the biggest 'Bow of the afternoon, about 17 inches long. Ok, does anybody have any ideas about this? I've never heard of anything like this ... Trout on Bass lures. I'm gonna have to try it again. VBG All comments welcome. Budd |
Soft plastics found in trout stomachs
I think Shawn's point is that the plastics might cause the fish to not have
stomach room for normal food and starve to death because of it. I can see where it is possible and I'm not even a tree hugger. Budd "John" wrote in message ... So what? Is there any thing special with these items? Is there any demonstrated harm? Fish have eaten all sort of mankind's refuse in water bodies for centuries, so what? Maybe the plastics have been eaten and passed and eaten and passed time and time again, if so is this a big problem? The plastics came from stomachs of live fish that were eaten by humans, right? Are the plastics only found in 2-8 pound brown trout? Are they only found in Vermont's 2,200 acre lake? Your post raises lots of questions. If this is a "NEW" event occurring in multiple states in multiple water bodies with multiple species there may be a big problem causing loss of fish life or health and forecasting fishery declines. If these plastics are just starting to be accumulating in fish stomachs, it could forecast issues in years ahead. Has anyone heard of this quantity happening elsewhere? John -- Remove FLY to reply "Shawn" wrote in message ... Budd : I'm a fisheries biologist with the State of Vermont's Fish & Wildlife Department. Last fall and early this spring I received a number of calls about large brown trout (that we stock in a nearby 2,200-acre lake) having very strange grubs or insect larvae in their stomach. Of course, without seeing the stomach contents, I couldn't comment on what the trout might have been eating, but I told the anglers to keep the stomachs next time they found such things when cleaning their fish. Over the winter ice-fishing season, and through this spring, several anglers brought stomachs from brown trout ranging from 2 to 10 pounds into the local baitshop. The owner of the shop put the stomachs in the freezer, then called me one day this spring when he had 8 or 10 stomachs in ziplock bags. I told him to thaw them out and I'd be down in an hour or so. I brought all my insect guides, minnow guides etc etc - anything I thought might help me identify the strange prey these brown trout were eating. But, when I got to the baitshop and picked up the first "grub", I started to laugh. When I told the baitshop owner it was a "senko", he immediately realized I was right and turned red, embarrassed he didn't realize it himself right away. Anyways, out of the 10 stomachs I examined that day with the strange "grubs" in them, every one of them turned out to be plastic baits of some sort. One stomach from an 8-pound brown trout had 14 different plastic lures in it, ranging from senkos to tube jigs to flukes to broken pieces of what looked like plastic worm bits. Now - this is what I think is happening. I'm also a bass fisherman, and I fish in our local Bassmasters club. So, I know how fast bass fisherman go through soft plastics. At the end of a day's fishing, whether for a tournament or just for fun, the floor of my boat and my friends boats are littered with soft plastics that are torn and won't stay on hooks anymore. Most ethical fisherman who care about the environment, the lakes they fish, and the fish they're after take those plastics home and dispose of them properly. However, I have personally witnessed countless times, fisherman tearing off a plastic worm and throwing it into the lake. Maybe sometimes the plastics blow out of the bass boats as they tear across the lake at 70mph. No matter how these plastics are getting into the lake, I have now seen first hand that trout WILL eat them. Not only do they eat them as they gently sway and sink to the bottom of an 80-foot deep lake, in my opinion they are also being picked up after they've reached the bottom. Brown trout will forage the bottom of lakes, and in the winter under the ice will do so in very shallow water even. Since seeing the plastics in the stomachs, I've spoken to more and more trout fisherman and I'm finding this is a much too common occurence - alot of the trout fisherman are getting brown trout with plastics in their stomachs in January, February, and March. Anyone who is familiar with Vermont knows that our bass fishing season ends in November, and that from December to mid-April our lakes are buried under 2 to 3 feet of ice, so these plastics being eating by brown trout are not fresh. It could also be that the plastics were picked up by the trout in the previous summer and fall, and haven't been digested or passed. This worries me even more since I don't know what the full impact of bass fisherman tossing their used plastics into the lake could be on the brown trout. So - to answer your question - YES trout WILL soft plastic baits, and rigging that way for them is likely a hot technique in certain situations to take them. But more importantly to the bass fisherman (and all plastic bait users) is DO NOT throw your used plastics in the water. If fish will hit them when they're on your hook, they certainly will hit them and swallow them when they're not ! For work, I will be making a targeted attempt to educate Vermont anglers on this issue. Please spread the word ! Shawn "Budd Cochran" wrote in message ... Greetings from the S.E. Utah desert country. Spent a few hours yesterday afternoon in the local mountains at a popular trout lake, Oowah Lake, near my home in Moab, UT. had considerable success in catching 1-3 pound Rainbows on red / white and black / white spoons, but my wife discovered something I though was rather odd. She rigged up with a small portion of a 6" Senko clone on an old but sharp Aberdeen hook and began getting solid bites. Exposing the hook point more got her five nice trout in about 30 minutes (she doesn't fish a lot) before a big one broke her line. I changed over to an Eagle Claw Tru-Turn and another chunk of the plastic worm and after 7 more fish ( I caught 10 on spoons) caught the biggest 'Bow of the afternoon, about 17 inches long. Ok, does anybody have any ideas about this? I've never heard of anything like this ... Trout on Bass lures. I'm gonna have to try it again. VBG All comments welcome. Budd |
Soft plastics found in trout stomachs
Budd :
You're right about my point. The fact that many of these trout had multiple plastics in their stomach tells me they either aren't passing them at all, or are passing them very slowly with much difficultly. So, in the meantime, while they're working on getting them out, there's not much room for actual food and nutrition. Obviously this isn't going to happen with every fish whether it's a bass or trout or something else that swallows a soft plastic bait. Most likely only eat one or so and that leaves room for other good food while they work on passing the plastic. Fish do eat a number of nasty things that can't be digested well such as crayfish claws, pine cones, snail shells etc etc, but they are eventually passed. So a trout eating ONE or maybe TWO plastic worms might not be a big deal. A trout that finds the motherload, or develops a taste for garlic and salt (;-) could be in trouble in terms of packing it's stomach with undigestable stuff, leaving no room for actual food. Regardless of all the "what if's", I still think it's something anglers need to be conscious of, and take care not to just haphazardly throw used soft plastics into lakes. Shawn "Budd Cochran" wrote in message ... I think Shawn's point is that the plastics might cause the fish to not have stomach room for normal food and starve to death because of it. I can see where it is possible and I'm not even a tree hugger. Budd "John" wrote in message ... So what? Is there any thing special with these items? Is there any demonstrated harm? Fish have eaten all sort of mankind's refuse in water bodies for centuries, so what? Maybe the plastics have been eaten and passed and eaten and passed time and time again, if so is this a big problem? The plastics came from stomachs of live fish that were eaten by humans, right? Are the plastics only found in 2-8 pound brown trout? Are they only found in Vermont's 2,200 acre lake? Your post raises lots of questions. If this is a "NEW" event occurring in multiple states in multiple water bodies with multiple species there may be a big problem causing loss of fish life or health and forecasting fishery declines. If these plastics are just starting to be accumulating in fish stomachs, it could forecast issues in years ahead. Has anyone heard of this quantity happening elsewhere? John -- Remove FLY to reply "Shawn" wrote in message ... Budd : I'm a fisheries biologist with the State of Vermont's Fish & Wildlife Department. Last fall and early this spring I received a number of calls about large brown trout (that we stock in a nearby 2,200-acre lake) having very strange grubs or insect larvae in their stomach. Of course, without seeing the stomach contents, I couldn't comment on what the trout might have been eating, but I told the anglers to keep the stomachs next time they found such things when cleaning their fish. Over the winter ice-fishing season, and through this spring, several anglers brought stomachs from brown trout ranging from 2 to 10 pounds into the local baitshop. The owner of the shop put the stomachs in the freezer, then called me one day this spring when he had 8 or 10 stomachs in ziplock bags. I told him to thaw them out and I'd be down in an hour or so. I brought all my insect guides, minnow guides etc etc - anything I thought might help me identify the strange prey these brown trout were eating. But, when I got to the baitshop and picked up the first "grub", I started to laugh. When I told the baitshop owner it was a "senko", he immediately realized I was right and turned red, embarrassed he didn't realize it himself right away. Anyways, out of the 10 stomachs I examined that day with the strange "grubs" in them, every one of them turned out to be plastic baits of some sort. One stomach from an 8-pound brown trout had 14 different plastic lures in it, ranging from senkos to tube jigs to flukes to broken pieces of what looked like plastic worm bits. Now - this is what I think is happening. I'm also a bass fisherman, and I fish in our local Bassmasters club. So, I know how fast bass fisherman go through soft plastics. At the end of a day's fishing, whether for a tournament or just for fun, the floor of my boat and my friends boats are littered with soft plastics that are torn and won't stay on hooks anymore. Most ethical fisherman who care about the environment, the lakes they fish, and the fish they're after take those plastics home and dispose of them properly. However, I have personally witnessed countless times, fisherman tearing off a plastic worm and throwing it into the lake. Maybe sometimes the plastics blow out of the bass boats as they tear across the lake at 70mph. No matter how these plastics are getting into the lake, I have now seen first hand that trout WILL eat them. Not only do they eat them as they gently sway and sink to the bottom of an 80-foot deep lake, in my opinion they are also being picked up after they've reached the bottom. Brown trout will forage the bottom of lakes, and in the winter under the ice will do so in very shallow water even. Since seeing the plastics in the stomachs, I've spoken to more and more trout fisherman and I'm finding this is a much too common occurence - alot of the trout fisherman are getting brown trout with plastics in their stomachs in January, February, and March. Anyone who is familiar with Vermont knows that our bass fishing season ends in November, and that from December to mid-April our lakes are buried under 2 to 3 feet of ice, so these plastics being eating by brown trout are not fresh. It could also be that the plastics were picked up by the trout in the previous summer and fall, and haven't been digested or passed. This worries me even more since I don't know what the full impact of bass fisherman tossing their used plastics into the lake could be on the brown trout. So - to answer your question - YES trout WILL soft plastic baits, and rigging that way for them is likely a hot technique in certain situations to take them. But more importantly to the bass fisherman (and all plastic bait users) is DO NOT throw your used plastics in the water. If fish will hit them when they're on your hook, they certainly will hit them and swallow them when they're not ! For work, I will be making a targeted attempt to educate Vermont anglers on this issue. Please spread the word ! Shawn "Budd Cochran" wrote in message ... Greetings from the S.E. Utah desert country. Spent a few hours yesterday afternoon in the local mountains at a popular trout lake, Oowah Lake, near my home in Moab, UT. had considerable success in catching 1-3 pound Rainbows on red / white and black / white spoons, but my wife discovered something I though was rather odd. She rigged up with a small portion of a 6" Senko clone on an old but sharp Aberdeen hook and began getting solid bites. Exposing the hook point more got her five nice trout in about 30 minutes (she doesn't fish a lot) before a big one broke her line. I changed over to an Eagle Claw Tru-Turn and another chunk of the plastic worm and after 7 more fish ( I caught 10 on spoons) caught the biggest 'Bow of the afternoon, about 17 inches long. Ok, does anybody have any ideas about this? I've never heard of anything like this ... Trout on Bass lures. I'm gonna have to try it again. VBG All comments welcome. Budd |
Soft plastics found in trout stomachs
Read your article Ronnie - it's a good message and one that should get out
there more often. I hope it doesn't take each angler to find a skinny fish full of plastic to stop throwing them out like that. I have to admit that years ago I used to do the same thing. "RGarri7470" wrote in message ... Reminds me of the story and picture I posted ast November of a bass with 19 plastic worms in its stomach http://fishing.about.com/cs/fishfact.../aa110303a.htm Ronnie http://fishing.about.com |
Soft plastics found in trout stomachs
Shawn wrote:
Budd : You're right about my point. The fact that many of these trout had multiple plastics in their stomach tells me they either aren't passing them at all, or are passing them very slowly with much difficultly. There is a company bringing out a digestible soft baits this year ANother thing which will actually kill the fish when swallowed is the salt impregnated plastics, they swell to ten times their size, if you don't believe that , just take one and put it in a jar full of water for a couple of weeks -- Rodney Long, Inventor of the Long Shot "WIGGLE" rig, SpecTastic Thread Boomerang Fishing Pro. ,Stand Out Hooks ,Stand Out Lures, Mojo's Rock Hopper & Rig Saver weights, Decoy Activator and the EZKnot http://www.ezknot.com |
Soft plastics found in trout stomachs
Shawn wrote:
Budd : You're right about my point. The fact that many of these trout had multiple plastics in their stomach tells me they either aren't passing them at all, or are passing them very slowly with much difficultly. There is a company bringing out a digestible soft baits this year ANother thing which will actually kill the fish when swallowed is the salt impregnated plastics, they swell to ten times their size, if you don't believe that , just take one and put it in a jar full of water for a couple of weeks -- Rodney Long, Inventor of the Long Shot "WIGGLE" rig, SpecTastic Thread Boomerang Fishing Pro. ,Stand Out Hooks ,Stand Out Lures, Mojo's Rock Hopper & Rig Saver weights, Decoy Activator and the EZKnot http://www.ezknot.com |
Soft plastics found in trout stomachs
Hi Shawn, thanks for contributing here; Any idea why something as soft &
rounded like a soft plastic grub, worm, etc would not simply pass through a fish's digestive tract? I find it hard to believe that a trout could digest a bony crawfish & not have a plastic grub slide right through. Warren "Shawn" non@non wrote in message ... Budd : You're right about my point. The fact that many of these trout had multiple plastics in their stomach tells me they either aren't passing them at all, or are passing them very slowly with much difficultly. So, in the meantime, while they're working on getting them out, there's not much room for actual food and nutrition. Obviously this isn't going to happen with every fish whether it's a bass or trout or something else that swallows a soft plastic bait. Most likely only eat one or so and that leaves room for other good food while they work on passing the plastic. Fish do eat a number of nasty things that can't be digested well such as crayfish claws, pine cones, snail shells etc etc, but they are eventually passed. So a trout eating ONE or maybe TWO plastic worms might not be a big deal. A trout that finds the motherload, or develops a taste for garlic and salt (;-) could be in trouble in terms of packing it's stomach with undigestable stuff, leaving no room for actual food. Regardless of all the "what if's", I still think it's something anglers need to be conscious of, and take care not to just haphazardly throw used soft plastics into lakes. Shawn "Budd Cochran" wrote in message ... I think Shawn's point is that the plastics might cause the fish to not have stomach room for normal food and starve to death because of it. I can see where it is possible and I'm not even a tree hugger. Budd "John" wrote in message ... So what? Is there any thing special with these items? Is there any demonstrated harm? Fish have eaten all sort of mankind's refuse in water bodies for centuries, so what? Maybe the plastics have been eaten and passed and eaten and passed time and time again, if so is this a big problem? The plastics came from stomachs of live fish that were eaten by humans, right? Are the plastics only found in 2-8 pound brown trout? Are they only found in Vermont's 2,200 acre lake? Your post raises lots of questions. If this is a "NEW" event occurring in multiple states in multiple water bodies with multiple species there may be a big problem causing loss of fish life or health and forecasting fishery declines. If these plastics are just starting to be accumulating in fish stomachs, it could forecast issues in years ahead. Has anyone heard of this quantity happening elsewhere? John -- Remove FLY to reply "Shawn" wrote in message ... Budd : I'm a fisheries biologist with the State of Vermont's Fish & Wildlife Department. Last fall and early this spring I received a number of calls about large brown trout (that we stock in a nearby 2,200-acre lake) having very strange grubs or insect larvae in their stomach. Of course, without seeing the stomach contents, I couldn't comment on what the trout might have been eating, but I told the anglers to keep the stomachs next time they found such things when cleaning their fish. Over the winter ice-fishing season, and through this spring, several anglers brought stomachs from brown trout ranging from 2 to 10 pounds into the local baitshop. The owner of the shop put the stomachs in the freezer, then called me one day this spring when he had 8 or 10 stomachs in ziplock bags. I told him to thaw them out and I'd be down in an hour or so. I brought all my insect guides, minnow guides etc etc - anything I thought might help me identify the strange prey these brown trout were eating. But, when I got to the baitshop and picked up the first "grub", I started to laugh. When I told the baitshop owner it was a "senko", he immediately realized I was right and turned red, embarrassed he didn't realize it himself right away. Anyways, out of the 10 stomachs I examined that day with the strange "grubs" in them, every one of them turned out to be plastic baits of some sort. One stomach from an 8-pound brown trout had 14 different plastic lures in it, ranging from senkos to tube jigs to flukes to broken pieces of what looked like plastic worm bits. Now - this is what I think is happening. I'm also a bass fisherman, and I fish in our local Bassmasters club. So, I know how fast bass fisherman go through soft plastics. At the end of a day's fishing, whether for a tournament or just for fun, the floor of my boat and my friends boats are littered with soft plastics that are torn and won't stay on hooks anymore. Most ethical fisherman who care about the environment, the lakes they fish, and the fish they're after take those plastics home and dispose of them properly. However, I have personally witnessed countless times, fisherman tearing off a plastic worm and throwing it into the lake. Maybe sometimes the plastics blow out of the bass boats as they tear across the lake at 70mph. No matter how these plastics are getting into the lake, I have now seen first hand that trout WILL eat them. Not only do they eat them as they gently sway and sink to the bottom of an 80-foot deep lake, in my opinion they are also being picked up after they've reached the bottom. Brown trout will forage the bottom of lakes, and in the winter under the ice will do so in very shallow water even. Since seeing the plastics in the stomachs, I've spoken to more and more trout fisherman and I'm finding this is a much too common occurence - alot of the trout fisherman are getting brown trout with plastics in their stomachs in January, February, and March. Anyone who is familiar with Vermont knows that our bass fishing season ends in November, and that from December to mid-April our lakes are buried under 2 to 3 feet of ice, so these plastics being eating by brown trout are not fresh. It could also be that the plastics were picked up by the trout in the previous summer and fall, and haven't been digested or passed. This worries me even more since I don't know what the full impact of bass fisherman tossing their used plastics into the lake could be on the brown trout. So - to answer your question - YES trout WILL soft plastic baits, and rigging that way for them is likely a hot technique in certain situations to take them. But more importantly to the bass fisherman (and all plastic bait users) is DO NOT throw your used plastics in the water. If fish will hit them when they're on your hook, they certainly will hit them and swallow them when they're not ! For work, I will be making a targeted attempt to educate Vermont anglers on this issue. Please spread the word ! Shawn "Budd Cochran" wrote in message ... Greetings from the S.E. Utah desert country. Spent a few hours yesterday afternoon in the local mountains at a popular trout lake, Oowah Lake, near my home in Moab, UT. had considerable success in catching 1-3 pound Rainbows on red / white and black / white spoons, but my wife discovered something I though was rather odd. She rigged up with a small portion of a 6" Senko clone on an old but sharp Aberdeen hook and began getting solid bites. Exposing the hook point more got her five nice trout in about 30 minutes (she doesn't fish a lot) before a big one broke her line. I changed over to an Eagle Claw Tru-Turn and another chunk of the plastic worm and after 7 more fish ( I caught 10 on spoons) caught the biggest 'Bow of the afternoon, about 17 inches long. Ok, does anybody have any ideas about this? I've never heard of anything like this ... Trout on Bass lures. I'm gonna have to try it again. VBG All comments welcome. Budd |
Soft plastics found in trout stomachs
The article says the bass was healthy Shawn...
Warren "Shawn" non@non wrote in message ... Read your article Ronnie - it's a good message and one that should get out there more often. I hope it doesn't take each angler to find a skinny fish full of plastic to stop throwing them out like that. I have to admit that years ago I used to do the same thing. "RGarri7470" wrote in message ... Reminds me of the story and picture I posted ast November of a bass with 19 plastic worms in its stomach http://fishing.about.com/cs/fishfact.../aa110303a.htm Ronnie http://fishing.about.com |
Soft plastics found in trout stomachs
The article says the bass was healthy Shawn...
Warren "Shawn" non@non wrote in message ... Read your article Ronnie - it's a good message and one that should get out there more often. I hope it doesn't take each angler to find a skinny fish full of plastic to stop throwing them out like that. I have to admit that years ago I used to do the same thing. "RGarri7470" wrote in message ... Reminds me of the story and picture I posted ast November of a bass with 19 plastic worms in its stomach http://fishing.about.com/cs/fishfact.../aa110303a.htm Ronnie http://fishing.about.com |
Soft plastics found in trout stomachs
Shawn responded to Budd and sez:
You're right about my point. The fact that many of these trout had multiple plastics in their stomach tells me they either aren't passing them at all, or are passing them very slowly with much difficultly. So, in the meantime, while they're working on getting them out, there's not much room for actual food and nutrition. Obviously this isn't going to happen with every fish whether it's a bass or trout or something else that swallows a soft plastic bait. Most likely only eat one or so and that leaves room for other good food while they work on passing the plastic. Fish do eat a number of nasty things that can't be digested well such as crayfish claws, pine cones, snail shells etc etc, but they are eventually passed. So a trout eating ONE or maybe TWO plastic worms might not be a big deal. A trout that finds the motherload, or develops a taste for garlic and salt (;-) could be in trouble in terms of packing it's stomach with undigestable stuff, leaving no room for actual food. Again this information does not answer whether all this is a problem, a big problem, a trout only problem, a Vermont problem. No dead fish were observed. No skinny or deformed fish were observed. No necropsies were cited to show that the plastics harmed the trout. All of this notwitstanding, something IS going on. You and Vermont F&G need to get answers to these questions quickly and accurately before the national press, newspapers and hype media start stroking the facts. PETA loonies could blow this information all out of proportion. Imagine how would they show your 10 stomach samples on TV to the kids? California will surely use this information to try to tax or prohibit sales of plastics. Soft stomach plastics could make lead shot in shotgun shells small in comparison! Regardless of all the "what if's", I still think it's something anglers need to be conscious of, and take care not to just haphazardly throw used soft plastics into lakes. You missed my point. It was we have some research to do. Soft stomach plastics could be a BIG deal if it is happening everywhere. Of course I'm not in favor of anglers throwing used plastics into lakes - haphazardly or any other way. But telling them NOT to do it won't solve the problem. I hope you are not planning on some "Let's not throw plastics in the lakes" public relations announcement without research. That could be a huge Public Relations nightmare for all of us!!! I sure hope you get some answers quickly. Good luck! John |
Soft plastics found in trout stomachs
Shawn responded to Budd and sez:
You're right about my point. The fact that many of these trout had multiple plastics in their stomach tells me they either aren't passing them at all, or are passing them very slowly with much difficultly. So, in the meantime, while they're working on getting them out, there's not much room for actual food and nutrition. Obviously this isn't going to happen with every fish whether it's a bass or trout or something else that swallows a soft plastic bait. Most likely only eat one or so and that leaves room for other good food while they work on passing the plastic. Fish do eat a number of nasty things that can't be digested well such as crayfish claws, pine cones, snail shells etc etc, but they are eventually passed. So a trout eating ONE or maybe TWO plastic worms might not be a big deal. A trout that finds the motherload, or develops a taste for garlic and salt (;-) could be in trouble in terms of packing it's stomach with undigestable stuff, leaving no room for actual food. Again this information does not answer whether all this is a problem, a big problem, a trout only problem, a Vermont problem. No dead fish were observed. No skinny or deformed fish were observed. No necropsies were cited to show that the plastics harmed the trout. All of this notwitstanding, something IS going on. You and Vermont F&G need to get answers to these questions quickly and accurately before the national press, newspapers and hype media start stroking the facts. PETA loonies could blow this information all out of proportion. Imagine how would they show your 10 stomach samples on TV to the kids? California will surely use this information to try to tax or prohibit sales of plastics. Soft stomach plastics could make lead shot in shotgun shells small in comparison! Regardless of all the "what if's", I still think it's something anglers need to be conscious of, and take care not to just haphazardly throw used soft plastics into lakes. You missed my point. It was we have some research to do. Soft stomach plastics could be a BIG deal if it is happening everywhere. Of course I'm not in favor of anglers throwing used plastics into lakes - haphazardly or any other way. But telling them NOT to do it won't solve the problem. I hope you are not planning on some "Let's not throw plastics in the lakes" public relations announcement without research. That could be a huge Public Relations nightmare for all of us!!! I sure hope you get some answers quickly. Good luck! John |
Soft plastics found in trout stomachs
Warren - actually, there were 2 fish mentioned in Ronnie's article. The one
with 19 plastic worms and lizards (plus hooks) in it was otherwise healthy. That fish was not caught by Ronnie, but by someone else who took the fish to a taxidermist. Further along in the article however, Ronnie then says he himself caught a bass once in Lake Martin that was skinny and in poor health. This fish had 4 plastic worms in it's stomach, and was starving to death. This incident was what made Ronnie finally stop throwing his plastics into the lake. Shawn "go-bassn" wrote in message ... The article says the bass was healthy Shawn... Warren "Shawn" non@non wrote in message ... Read your article Ronnie - it's a good message and one that should get out there more often. I hope it doesn't take each angler to find a skinny fish full of plastic to stop throwing them out like that. I have to admit that years ago I used to do the same thing. "RGarri7470" wrote in message ... Reminds me of the story and picture I posted ast November of a bass with 19 plastic worms in its stomach http://fishing.about.com/cs/fishfact.../aa110303a.htm Ronnie http://fishing.about.com |
Soft plastics found in trout stomachs
Warren - actually, there were 2 fish mentioned in Ronnie's article. The one
with 19 plastic worms and lizards (plus hooks) in it was otherwise healthy. That fish was not caught by Ronnie, but by someone else who took the fish to a taxidermist. Further along in the article however, Ronnie then says he himself caught a bass once in Lake Martin that was skinny and in poor health. This fish had 4 plastic worms in it's stomach, and was starving to death. This incident was what made Ronnie finally stop throwing his plastics into the lake. Shawn "go-bassn" wrote in message ... The article says the bass was healthy Shawn... Warren "Shawn" non@non wrote in message ... Read your article Ronnie - it's a good message and one that should get out there more often. I hope it doesn't take each angler to find a skinny fish full of plastic to stop throwing them out like that. I have to admit that years ago I used to do the same thing. "RGarri7470" wrote in message ... Reminds me of the story and picture I posted ast November of a bass with 19 plastic worms in its stomach http://fishing.about.com/cs/fishfact.../aa110303a.htm Ronnie http://fishing.about.com |
Soft plastics found in trout stomachs
Warren :
I think prt of it could be what somebody else here has already commented on. Salt-impregnated soft plastic baits swell over time in water, which probably would make it harder to pass. Not impossible however, and I'm sure this is occurring more often than we think and for the most part the baits ARE eventually getting passed. But if and when a fish eats numerous baits within a short time period trying to pass all of these as they swell, roll, and tangle inside the fish's stomach ..... well, it could be a problem. I'm not in the position to speak with any great deal of authority on this, as I haven't studied it. I'm just speculating about impacts, and mainly wanted to report to the group on this interesting observation in Vermont. But the guy named "John" who has responded a couple times so far seems to think it's the new "lead shot" issue in aquatics. I personally don't think it's even close to warranting that level of alarm. If waves of fish start washing up on lakes around Vermont and the rest of the country stuffed to the gills with soft plastics, then we should be worrying. But for now, I think a nice, targeting PSA to the angling community would suffice. Again, as I said earlier, I think for the most part the angling community is generally full of well-informed, concerned people who would not intentionally do anything to harm lakes and rivers and the fish that swim in them ! However, having said that, some anglers may not realize or take the time to think about what happens to their used plastics after being tossed in the lake. I'm sure many people may actually think they just "go away" - dissolved or breakdown eventually or something - which they don't. So, just by educating angler groups as to the fate of these baits in the environment could be a vast improvement and result in a large reduction in the amount of plastics thrown overboard. Shawn "go-bassn" wrote in message ... Hi Shawn, thanks for contributing here; Any idea why something as soft & rounded like a soft plastic grub, worm, etc would not simply pass through a fish's digestive tract? I find it hard to believe that a trout could digest a bony crawfish & not have a plastic grub slide right through. Warren "Shawn" non@non wrote in message ... Budd : You're right about my point. The fact that many of these trout had multiple plastics in their stomach tells me they either aren't passing them at all, or are passing them very slowly with much difficultly. So, in the meantime, while they're working on getting them out, there's not much room for actual food and nutrition. Obviously this isn't going to happen with every fish whether it's a bass or trout or something else that swallows a soft plastic bait. Most likely only eat one or so and that leaves room for other good food while they work on passing the plastic. Fish do eat a number of nasty things that can't be digested well such as crayfish claws, pine cones, snail shells etc etc, but they are eventually passed. So a trout eating ONE or maybe TWO plastic worms might not be a big deal. A trout that finds the motherload, or develops a taste for garlic and salt (;-) could be in trouble in terms of packing it's stomach with undigestable stuff, leaving no room for actual food. Regardless of all the "what if's", I still think it's something anglers need to be conscious of, and take care not to just haphazardly throw used soft plastics into lakes. Shawn "Budd Cochran" wrote in message ... I think Shawn's point is that the plastics might cause the fish to not have stomach room for normal food and starve to death because of it. I can see where it is possible and I'm not even a tree hugger. Budd "John" wrote in message ... So what? Is there any thing special with these items? Is there any demonstrated harm? Fish have eaten all sort of mankind's refuse in water bodies for centuries, so what? Maybe the plastics have been eaten and passed and eaten and passed time and time again, if so is this a big problem? The plastics came from stomachs of live fish that were eaten by humans, right? Are the plastics only found in 2-8 pound brown trout? Are they only found in Vermont's 2,200 acre lake? Your post raises lots of questions. If this is a "NEW" event occurring in multiple states in multiple water bodies with multiple species there may be a big problem causing loss of fish life or health and forecasting fishery declines. If these plastics are just starting to be accumulating in fish stomachs, it could forecast issues in years ahead. Has anyone heard of this quantity happening elsewhere? John -- Remove FLY to reply "Shawn" wrote in message ... Budd : I'm a fisheries biologist with the State of Vermont's Fish & Wildlife Department. Last fall and early this spring I received a number of calls about large brown trout (that we stock in a nearby 2,200-acre lake) having very strange grubs or insect larvae in their stomach. Of course, without seeing the stomach contents, I couldn't comment on what the trout might have been eating, but I told the anglers to keep the stomachs next time they found such things when cleaning their fish. Over the winter ice-fishing season, and through this spring, several anglers brought stomachs from brown trout ranging from 2 to 10 pounds into the local baitshop. The owner of the shop put the stomachs in the freezer, then called me one day this spring when he had 8 or 10 stomachs in ziplock bags. I told him to thaw them out and I'd be down in an hour or so. I brought all my insect guides, minnow guides etc etc - anything I thought might help me identify the strange prey these brown trout were eating. But, when I got to the baitshop and picked up the first "grub", I started to laugh. When I told the baitshop owner it was a "senko", he immediately realized I was right and turned red, embarrassed he didn't realize it himself right away. Anyways, out of the 10 stomachs I examined that day with the strange "grubs" in them, every one of them turned out to be plastic baits of some sort. One stomach from an 8-pound brown trout had 14 different plastic lures in it, ranging from senkos to tube jigs to flukes to broken pieces of what looked like plastic worm bits. Now - this is what I think is happening. I'm also a bass fisherman, and I fish in our local Bassmasters club. So, I know how fast bass fisherman go through soft plastics. At the end of a day's fishing, whether for a tournament or just for fun, the floor of my boat and my friends boats are littered with soft plastics that are torn and won't stay on hooks anymore. Most ethical fisherman who care about the environment, the lakes they fish, and the fish they're after take those plastics home and dispose of them properly. However, I have personally witnessed countless times, fisherman tearing off a plastic worm and throwing it into the lake. Maybe sometimes the plastics blow out of the bass boats as they tear across the lake at 70mph. No matter how these plastics are getting into the lake, I have now seen first hand that trout WILL eat them. Not only do they eat them as they gently sway and sink to the bottom of an 80-foot deep lake, in my opinion they are also being picked up after they've reached the bottom. Brown trout will forage the bottom of lakes, and in the winter under the ice will do so in very shallow water even. Since seeing the plastics in the stomachs, I've spoken to more and more trout fisherman and I'm finding this is a much too common occurence - alot of the trout fisherman are getting brown trout with plastics in their stomachs in January, February, and March. Anyone who is familiar with Vermont knows that our bass fishing season ends in November, and that from December to mid-April our lakes are buried under 2 to 3 feet of ice, so these plastics being eating by brown trout are not fresh. It could also be that the plastics were picked up by the trout in the previous summer and fall, and haven't been digested or passed. This worries me even more since I don't know what the full impact of bass fisherman tossing their used plastics into the lake could be on the brown trout. So - to answer your question - YES trout WILL soft plastic baits, and rigging that way for them is likely a hot technique in certain situations to take them. But more importantly to the bass fisherman (and all plastic bait users) is DO NOT throw your used plastics in the water. If fish will hit them when they're on your hook, they certainly will hit them and swallow them when they're not ! For work, I will be making a targeted attempt to educate Vermont anglers on this issue. Please spread the word ! Shawn "Budd Cochran" wrote in message ... Greetings from the S.E. Utah desert country. Spent a few hours yesterday afternoon in the local mountains at a popular trout lake, Oowah Lake, near my home in Moab, UT. had considerable success in catching 1-3 pound Rainbows on red / white and black / white spoons, but my wife discovered something I though was rather odd. She rigged up with a small portion of a 6" Senko clone on an old but sharp Aberdeen hook and began getting solid bites. Exposing the hook point more got her five nice trout in about 30 minutes (she doesn't fish a lot) before a big one broke her line. I changed over to an Eagle Claw Tru-Turn and another chunk of the plastic worm and after 7 more fish ( I caught 10 on spoons) caught the biggest 'Bow of the afternoon, about 17 inches long. Ok, does anybody have any ideas about this? I've never heard of anything like this ... Trout on Bass lures. I'm gonna have to try it again. VBG All comments welcome. Budd |
Soft plastics found in trout stomachs
Warren :
I think prt of it could be what somebody else here has already commented on. Salt-impregnated soft plastic baits swell over time in water, which probably would make it harder to pass. Not impossible however, and I'm sure this is occurring more often than we think and for the most part the baits ARE eventually getting passed. But if and when a fish eats numerous baits within a short time period trying to pass all of these as they swell, roll, and tangle inside the fish's stomach ..... well, it could be a problem. I'm not in the position to speak with any great deal of authority on this, as I haven't studied it. I'm just speculating about impacts, and mainly wanted to report to the group on this interesting observation in Vermont. But the guy named "John" who has responded a couple times so far seems to think it's the new "lead shot" issue in aquatics. I personally don't think it's even close to warranting that level of alarm. If waves of fish start washing up on lakes around Vermont and the rest of the country stuffed to the gills with soft plastics, then we should be worrying. But for now, I think a nice, targeting PSA to the angling community would suffice. Again, as I said earlier, I think for the most part the angling community is generally full of well-informed, concerned people who would not intentionally do anything to harm lakes and rivers and the fish that swim in them ! However, having said that, some anglers may not realize or take the time to think about what happens to their used plastics after being tossed in the lake. I'm sure many people may actually think they just "go away" - dissolved or breakdown eventually or something - which they don't. So, just by educating angler groups as to the fate of these baits in the environment could be a vast improvement and result in a large reduction in the amount of plastics thrown overboard. Shawn "go-bassn" wrote in message ... Hi Shawn, thanks for contributing here; Any idea why something as soft & rounded like a soft plastic grub, worm, etc would not simply pass through a fish's digestive tract? I find it hard to believe that a trout could digest a bony crawfish & not have a plastic grub slide right through. Warren "Shawn" non@non wrote in message ... Budd : You're right about my point. The fact that many of these trout had multiple plastics in their stomach tells me they either aren't passing them at all, or are passing them very slowly with much difficultly. So, in the meantime, while they're working on getting them out, there's not much room for actual food and nutrition. Obviously this isn't going to happen with every fish whether it's a bass or trout or something else that swallows a soft plastic bait. Most likely only eat one or so and that leaves room for other good food while they work on passing the plastic. Fish do eat a number of nasty things that can't be digested well such as crayfish claws, pine cones, snail shells etc etc, but they are eventually passed. So a trout eating ONE or maybe TWO plastic worms might not be a big deal. A trout that finds the motherload, or develops a taste for garlic and salt (;-) could be in trouble in terms of packing it's stomach with undigestable stuff, leaving no room for actual food. Regardless of all the "what if's", I still think it's something anglers need to be conscious of, and take care not to just haphazardly throw used soft plastics into lakes. Shawn "Budd Cochran" wrote in message ... I think Shawn's point is that the plastics might cause the fish to not have stomach room for normal food and starve to death because of it. I can see where it is possible and I'm not even a tree hugger. Budd "John" wrote in message ... So what? Is there any thing special with these items? Is there any demonstrated harm? Fish have eaten all sort of mankind's refuse in water bodies for centuries, so what? Maybe the plastics have been eaten and passed and eaten and passed time and time again, if so is this a big problem? The plastics came from stomachs of live fish that were eaten by humans, right? Are the plastics only found in 2-8 pound brown trout? Are they only found in Vermont's 2,200 acre lake? Your post raises lots of questions. If this is a "NEW" event occurring in multiple states in multiple water bodies with multiple species there may be a big problem causing loss of fish life or health and forecasting fishery declines. If these plastics are just starting to be accumulating in fish stomachs, it could forecast issues in years ahead. Has anyone heard of this quantity happening elsewhere? John -- Remove FLY to reply "Shawn" wrote in message ... Budd : I'm a fisheries biologist with the State of Vermont's Fish & Wildlife Department. Last fall and early this spring I received a number of calls about large brown trout (that we stock in a nearby 2,200-acre lake) having very strange grubs or insect larvae in their stomach. Of course, without seeing the stomach contents, I couldn't comment on what the trout might have been eating, but I told the anglers to keep the stomachs next time they found such things when cleaning their fish. Over the winter ice-fishing season, and through this spring, several anglers brought stomachs from brown trout ranging from 2 to 10 pounds into the local baitshop. The owner of the shop put the stomachs in the freezer, then called me one day this spring when he had 8 or 10 stomachs in ziplock bags. I told him to thaw them out and I'd be down in an hour or so. I brought all my insect guides, minnow guides etc etc - anything I thought might help me identify the strange prey these brown trout were eating. But, when I got to the baitshop and picked up the first "grub", I started to laugh. When I told the baitshop owner it was a "senko", he immediately realized I was right and turned red, embarrassed he didn't realize it himself right away. Anyways, out of the 10 stomachs I examined that day with the strange "grubs" in them, every one of them turned out to be plastic baits of some sort. One stomach from an 8-pound brown trout had 14 different plastic lures in it, ranging from senkos to tube jigs to flukes to broken pieces of what looked like plastic worm bits. Now - this is what I think is happening. I'm also a bass fisherman, and I fish in our local Bassmasters club. So, I know how fast bass fisherman go through soft plastics. At the end of a day's fishing, whether for a tournament or just for fun, the floor of my boat and my friends boats are littered with soft plastics that are torn and won't stay on hooks anymore. Most ethical fisherman who care about the environment, the lakes they fish, and the fish they're after take those plastics home and dispose of them properly. However, I have personally witnessed countless times, fisherman tearing off a plastic worm and throwing it into the lake. Maybe sometimes the plastics blow out of the bass boats as they tear across the lake at 70mph. No matter how these plastics are getting into the lake, I have now seen first hand that trout WILL eat them. Not only do they eat them as they gently sway and sink to the bottom of an 80-foot deep lake, in my opinion they are also being picked up after they've reached the bottom. Brown trout will forage the bottom of lakes, and in the winter under the ice will do so in very shallow water even. Since seeing the plastics in the stomachs, I've spoken to more and more trout fisherman and I'm finding this is a much too common occurence - alot of the trout fisherman are getting brown trout with plastics in their stomachs in January, February, and March. Anyone who is familiar with Vermont knows that our bass fishing season ends in November, and that from December to mid-April our lakes are buried under 2 to 3 feet of ice, so these plastics being eating by brown trout are not fresh. It could also be that the plastics were picked up by the trout in the previous summer and fall, and haven't been digested or passed. This worries me even more since I don't know what the full impact of bass fisherman tossing their used plastics into the lake could be on the brown trout. So - to answer your question - YES trout WILL soft plastic baits, and rigging that way for them is likely a hot technique in certain situations to take them. But more importantly to the bass fisherman (and all plastic bait users) is DO NOT throw your used plastics in the water. If fish will hit them when they're on your hook, they certainly will hit them and swallow them when they're not ! For work, I will be making a targeted attempt to educate Vermont anglers on this issue. Please spread the word ! Shawn "Budd Cochran" wrote in message ... Greetings from the S.E. Utah desert country. Spent a few hours yesterday afternoon in the local mountains at a popular trout lake, Oowah Lake, near my home in Moab, UT. had considerable success in catching 1-3 pound Rainbows on red / white and black / white spoons, but my wife discovered something I though was rather odd. She rigged up with a small portion of a 6" Senko clone on an old but sharp Aberdeen hook and began getting solid bites. Exposing the hook point more got her five nice trout in about 30 minutes (she doesn't fish a lot) before a big one broke her line. I changed over to an Eagle Claw Tru-Turn and another chunk of the plastic worm and after 7 more fish ( I caught 10 on spoons) caught the biggest 'Bow of the afternoon, about 17 inches long. Ok, does anybody have any ideas about this? I've never heard of anything like this ... Trout on Bass lures. I'm gonna have to try it again. VBG All comments welcome. Budd |
Soft plastics found in trout stomachs
Re swelling plastics. Salt impregnated plastics will swell when submerged
long enough to become water saturated. There was a report some time back that said they would become 12 times their size, but that has been proven by several tests (including my own) to be a fallacy. It IS possible for super-heavily salted baits to swell to nearly double their size though. (the more salt to dissolve, the more they will swell). Even with more than 8 months of immersion in a test tank, I've never had any quite reach twice their size. I would offer a hypothesis that this situation (I hesitate to label it a problem) is more commonly encountered today because there are more anglers throwing heavily salted baits. First, they break off the hook on the cast, hookset or during the battle far more often than traditional plastics, and 2nd, they sink. So there are more chunks of plastic "roaming free" in the fish's habitat now than when most plastics weren't salted or carried far less salt. Old style plastics didn't end up in the water unless you broke off or discarded them there. Senkos and their ilk end up there by accident all the time. Even when traditional (ie floating) plastic baits were lost or discarded, they would float and eventually end up against or on the bank, instead of on the bottom. Fewer of them ere eaten. As far as their appearing in trout stomachs, I would suspect that corn is a bigger problem. Corn is commonly used ad bait and as chum in waters where stocked trout are targeted. I've caught rainbows and browns so full of corn kernels than they were grotesquely bloated, and they apparently can neither digest nor easily pass it. RichZ© www.richz.com/fishing |
Soft plastics found in trout stomachs
My apologies Shawn, I didn't read the entire article.
Warren -- http://www.warrenwolk.com/ http://www.tri-statebassmasters.com 2004 NJ B.A.S.S. Federation State Champions "Shawn" wrote in message ... Warren - actually, there were 2 fish mentioned in Ronnie's article. The one with 19 plastic worms and lizards (plus hooks) in it was otherwise healthy. That fish was not caught by Ronnie, but by someone else who took the fish to a taxidermist. Further along in the article however, Ronnie then says he himself caught a bass once in Lake Martin that was skinny and in poor health. This fish had 4 plastic worms in it's stomach, and was starving to death. This incident was what made Ronnie finally stop throwing his plastics into the lake. Shawn "go-bassn" wrote in message ... The article says the bass was healthy Shawn... Warren "Shawn" non@non wrote in message ... Read your article Ronnie - it's a good message and one that should get out there more often. I hope it doesn't take each angler to find a skinny fish full of plastic to stop throwing them out like that. I have to admit that years ago I used to do the same thing. "RGarri7470" wrote in message ... Reminds me of the story and picture I posted ast November of a bass with 19 plastic worms in its stomach http://fishing.about.com/cs/fishfact.../aa110303a.htm Ronnie http://fishing.about.com |
Soft plastics found in trout stomachs
My apologies Shawn, I didn't read the entire article.
Warren -- http://www.warrenwolk.com/ http://www.tri-statebassmasters.com 2004 NJ B.A.S.S. Federation State Champions "Shawn" wrote in message ... Warren - actually, there were 2 fish mentioned in Ronnie's article. The one with 19 plastic worms and lizards (plus hooks) in it was otherwise healthy. That fish was not caught by Ronnie, but by someone else who took the fish to a taxidermist. Further along in the article however, Ronnie then says he himself caught a bass once in Lake Martin that was skinny and in poor health. This fish had 4 plastic worms in it's stomach, and was starving to death. This incident was what made Ronnie finally stop throwing his plastics into the lake. Shawn "go-bassn" wrote in message ... The article says the bass was healthy Shawn... Warren "Shawn" non@non wrote in message ... Read your article Ronnie - it's a good message and one that should get out there more often. I hope it doesn't take each angler to find a skinny fish full of plastic to stop throwing them out like that. I have to admit that years ago I used to do the same thing. "RGarri7470" wrote in message ... Reminds me of the story and picture I posted ast November of a bass with 19 plastic worms in its stomach http://fishing.about.com/cs/fishfact.../aa110303a.htm Ronnie http://fishing.about.com |
Soft plastics found in trout stomachs
I had a Zoom Lil Critter Craw (a plastic craw that is NOT salt impregnated)
come out of my boat's bilge after God-knows-how-long, and I'd guess it had swelled to 4x its original size. Who knows what substances it encountered down there. It was hideous lol... Warren "RichZ" wrote in message ... Re swelling plastics. Salt impregnated plastics will swell when submerged long enough to become water saturated. There was a report some time back that said they would become 12 times their size, but that has been proven by several tests (including my own) to be a fallacy. It IS possible for super-heavily salted baits to swell to nearly double their size though. (the more salt to dissolve, the more they will swell). Even with more than 8 months of immersion in a test tank, I've never had any quite reach twice their size. I would offer a hypothesis that this situation (I hesitate to label it a problem) is more commonly encountered today because there are more anglers throwing heavily salted baits. First, they break off the hook on the cast, hookset or during the battle far more often than traditional plastics, and 2nd, they sink. So there are more chunks of plastic "roaming free" in the fish's habitat now than when most plastics weren't salted or carried far less salt. Old style plastics didn't end up in the water unless you broke off or discarded them there. Senkos and their ilk end up there by accident all the time. Even when traditional (ie floating) plastic baits were lost or discarded, they would float and eventually end up against or on the bank, instead of on the bottom. Fewer of them ere eaten. As far as their appearing in trout stomachs, I would suspect that corn is a bigger problem. Corn is commonly used ad bait and as chum in waters where stocked trout are targeted. I've caught rainbows and browns so full of corn kernels than they were grotesquely bloated, and they apparently can neither digest nor easily pass it. RichZ© www.richz.com/fishing |
Soft plastics found in trout stomachs
Go-bassn wrote:
Zoom Lil Critter Craw (a plastic craw that is NOT salt impregnated) If it was a zoom and wasn't a laminated color, it was salt impregnated. Not to the extent that the yamamoto stuff is, but definitely salty. All zoom's solid color baits, including the little critter craw, have been for years. Bilge oil in the mix though, does upset the applecart. RichZ© www.richz.com/fishing |
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