Mystery

[Hereford_angler]

While searching for a nice peg on a wild pond i found a dead carp on the bank. It looked about 10lb judging by the length. I had to judge by the length as most of its middle was missing. More like a head connected to a tail by the back bone! But enyway i wondered what killed it and ate it. Some of the anglers i was with say it died of disease and was eaten by a fox. Some say it went into too shallow water and died. What do you think?

[SAMTENCH]

I saw the same thing the other week at a fishery near me but there was about 4 and they were all on the bank and half eaten. this wasnt disease, i think it was maybe a mink or somthing like that. the ones i saw were not that big so i dont thing that fish was killed by a mink.

[Peter Waller]

Nature does take its toll at this time of year. Whether it was spawning related or not I have no idea.

 

The fish's demise could be subsequant to bad handling, de-oxygenated water or even predators.

 

For example, otters do kill quite bigfish, foxes do go for torpid fish in the shallows.

 

Unfortunately, 'otter strikes' are also a fact of life. It appears that otters kill for fun, ofton killing far more fish than they eat. Mink, on the other hand, only appear to kill what they need to eat, or more generally, eat what is freshly dead.

 

That your ten pound carp had been partially eaten could have been down to rats, rooks, crows, magpies, jays, cats or mink, amongst other things. We could even blame a long stay carper who had forgotten his tin opener

 

[ 22 June 2002, 10:24 AM: Message edited by: Peter Waller ]

[phil hackett]

Hereford_angler:

While searching for a nice peg on a wild pond i found a dead carp on the bank. It looked about 10lb judging by the length. I had to judge by the length as most of its middle was missing. More like a head connected to a tail by the back bone! But enyway i wondered what killed it and ate it. Some of the anglers i was with say it died of disease and was eaten by a fox. Some say it went into too shallow water and died. What do you think?

From your description above, it’s not inconsistent with an otter kill.

Some of the evidence I seen from Chris Burt and others are of fish of up to 20+ being taken.

As Pete says, it’s a “fact of life” that otters will kill such fish.

Other animals may have also feasted on the carcass after the otter had had its fill.