"Sierra fisher" wrote:
... snip ...
Salmon eat nothing once they come into fresh water: some people
believe that
most salmon are snagged because it is impossible for them to eat after
they
have been in fresh water for a day or so.

My son Andy caught a Silver salmon last year on the Skagit above
Rockport that had a skulpin and a half digested whitefish in it's
stomach. I've found that the fish quit feeding as they get close to
spawning, but that it's not necessarily related to when they enter the
rivers. The same is true of the change from ocean coloration to
spawning colors. Andy's fish was ocean bright, but had no sea lice.
That indicates he'd been in the river a few days. Considering that
he'd come more than 70 miles upstream in a big river that makes sense.
The fish was caught in October, and the fish was probably going to
spawn in November or December.

It's rare to find anything in a salmon or steelhead's stomach, but it
does happen. Deschutes and Kalama steelhead often have a stomach full
of grasshoppers or stonefly nymphs.

Chas
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