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