Stones

[bikenut]

Had a weekend in North Wales trout fishing on a day ticket lake.

My mate gutted the fish we caught and one of them had its belly full of pebbles which he said he had never seen before, (and he's gutted a few fish in his time!)

Any ideas why this might be?, the other fish were full of pellets.

Thanks, Bikenut

[Tony U]

Ive had fish with pebbles in their gut before, I put it down to them feeding on Caddis nymphs or such like, but an interesting hypothesis might be that they are using the stones as a digestive aid in the same way as some birds do in their gizzard.

 

[ 09. May 2005, 11:17 AM: Message edited by: Tony U ]

[bikenut]

Yes Tony, we came to much the same conclusions, but how on earth does the fish eject them (if at all) as some were quite sizeable, and numbering about 10 in total.

[Tony U]

If the trout are using the stones for digestion the liklihood is that they would be retained in the gut.

That said I have seen large snail shells passsed by the fish which causes reddening of the anal vent but otherwise does not seem to bother them. So I guess they would be evacuated in the normal way

[Norfolkdan]

A new secret bait?

[Dan G]

I doubt a trout senses indigestion and therefore eats stones! I think a more accidental, as suggested chasing caddis, is more likely. Admittedly, i'm no biological expert!!! I do know that trout aren't incredibly choosy - I caught a lovely wild brownie in Derbyshire and when gutted it contained an elastoplast!!!!!

[Jeff S]

Bruno B probably knows... Swim bladder acting up and needed assistance or something else along those lines. Interesting question though.

 

Found this after I made the suggestion. It would seem that I was on the right track.

 

[ 09. May 2005, 07:20 PM: Message edited by: Jeff S ]

[Guest PhilB]

Put yourself in a freshly-stocked rainbow's position. It's been fed regularly every day of it's life and suddenly it's thrown into a lake with no food that it recognises - it soon gets hungry and will eat stones or anything else that looks vaguely like a pellet. I've had them full of Ash tree seeds, sticks, grass, bits of reed, the list is endless. The strangest thing I ever found was a rubber minnow about 3" long off one of those Mepps spinners. I suppose it picked it up off the bottom after all the metal-work had rusted away!