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Author Topic: Oliver Lake Rainbow stomach contents  (Read 6572 times)

taxid

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Oliver Lake Rainbow stomach contents
« on: Jun 22, 2020, 06:57 AM »
Skinned out a 20 inch rainbow I am mounting for a customer. It had the following stomach contents:



A couple of pieces of a bullrush, a ramshorn snail, corbicula clam (exotic Asian clam), corn, piece of nitecrawler, various invertebrates, and zooplankton.

I find it hard to believe the corbicula clam could be fully digested and passed without great difficulty.

This shows you they will put anything in their mouths that will fit.

In my trout rearing pond I rarely see snails vs. the other ponds. So snails are definitely part of a trout's diet.

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taxid

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Re: Oliver Lake Rainbow stomach contents
« Reply #1 on: Jun 22, 2020, 04:35 PM »
looks like an animal that is starving.  I have found many leaves rocks and sticks in those trout.

at least it wasn't packed full of corn!  good sign they aren't chumming by the barrel full.

It wasn't starving. It had a good body conformation.

Used to catch brook trout in New England with cigarette butts in them.
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staubsaugen

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Re: Oliver Lake Rainbow stomach contents
« Reply #2 on: Jun 22, 2020, 04:51 PM »
I have definitely found butts in the Oliver trout as well. when was the trout you are working with taxid caught?

taxid

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Re: Oliver Lake Rainbow stomach contents
« Reply #3 on: Jun 22, 2020, 05:11 PM »
I have definitely found butts in the Oliver trout as well. when was the trout you are working with taxid caught?

I am so far behind it was caught last summer!
“The trouble with quotes on the Internet is you never know if they are genuine.” —Abraham Lincoln

bigr

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Re: Oliver Lake Rainbow stomach contents
« Reply #4 on: Jun 23, 2020, 08:17 AM »
Do you think the corn and worm was left over from fishing or just somehow got into the water. Worm maybe ,corn doubtful.

Spooled85

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Re: Oliver Lake Rainbow stomach contents
« Reply #5 on: Jun 23, 2020, 09:44 AM »
I know alot of people use corn to fish for trout

taxid

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Re: Oliver Lake Rainbow stomach contents
« Reply #6 on: Jun 23, 2020, 01:58 PM »
my money is on the corn was chum and the worm from the hook.

Absolutely!

Btw in regards to the mussels etc. Just read an excellent book The Death and Life of the Great Lakes. Goes way back to the first canals built to the present time. If I got it right Whitefish were having issues competing with the alewives and reduced food which consists of zooplankton and amphipods thanks to the mussels filtering, and were on a serious decline. They started eating alewives and gobies, of which fish were not a normal part of their diet, which surprised the few commercial fisherman that had been fishing for them for decades as according to them Whitefish were not historically fish eaters. Then the Whitefish started eating mussels, but were having problems passing them, and showed some serious ulcerations due an attempt to pass the shells. But apparently natural selection is taking place, as they are now catching Whitefish with thicker digestive tract tissue all the way to their anus, which seems to have adapted to the mussel shells. According to the commercial fisherman the Whitefish are making a comeback and look quite healthy. As long as the alewife numbers are down the natives species seem to be coming back.
“The trouble with quotes on the Internet is you never know if they are genuine.” —Abraham Lincoln

zwiggles

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Re: Oliver Lake Rainbow stomach contents
« Reply #7 on: Jun 23, 2020, 04:32 PM »
and who sat there taking note of that? lol

Probably just cut open the fish and saw for themselves right?

@Taxid do you have a link to that book? I love reading about our fisheries from way back when.

taxid

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Re: Oliver Lake Rainbow stomach contents
« Reply #8 on: Jun 24, 2020, 06:08 AM »
could the clams and snails contribute to the lack of hold overs also?  seems the new zebra muscles could be snacked on by them real easy.  maybe get stacked up in there and cause death.

Could although Oliver never had the holdover rainbows and size like Clear Lake did even pre infestation of mussels. The brown trout always held over better according to the INDNR's own data. My assumption is this is because Oliver doesn't have the forage base (gizzard shad and yellow perch) like Clear did. Clear probably had faster growth than 1/2 inch per month in the summer feeding on primary zooplankton as in Oliver.

And to be sure finding one Corbicula in a trout does not mean they are common or a common part of their diet.
“The trouble with quotes on the Internet is you never know if they are genuine.” —Abraham Lincoln

taxid

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Re: Oliver Lake Rainbow stomach contents
« Reply #9 on: Jun 24, 2020, 06:10 AM »
and who sat there taking note of that? lol

No one sat there taking notes. It was commercial fisherman that had been fishing for decades seeing less and less Whitefish and in poor condition, and then things reversed. No more hemorrhaging of the anal duct trying to pass sharp shells, and in filleting the fish, they noticed the entire intestinal tract was thicker and tougher. Also finding fish in their stomach contents which never happened before.

It's not unusual for a species to adapt though. Robins used to be exclusively a woodland bird.
“The trouble with quotes on the Internet is you never know if they are genuine.” —Abraham Lincoln

taxid

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Re: Oliver Lake Rainbow stomach contents
« Reply #10 on: Jun 24, 2020, 06:11 AM »
Probably just cut open the fish and saw for themselves right?

@Taxid do you have a link to that book? I love reading about our fisheries from way back when.

https://www.amazon.com/Death-Life-Great-Lakes/dp/0393246434
“The trouble with quotes on the Internet is you never know if they are genuine.” —Abraham Lincoln

taxid

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Re: Oliver Lake Rainbow stomach contents
« Reply #11 on: Jun 24, 2020, 02:29 PM »
Tim,

O.K. gotcha on the kidding.

You need to post this on my Indiana Inland Lakes Trout Anglers page. We have an assistant biologist that answers questions like this. Its been a long time since I had to identify 120 species of aquatic insects in college.
“The trouble with quotes on the Internet is you never know if they are genuine.” —Abraham Lincoln

taxid

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Re: Oliver Lake Rainbow stomach contents
« Reply #12 on: Jun 24, 2020, 08:15 PM »
I looked at your video again, and I think know what they are if I'm seeing them right. They are chironomid midge fly larvae. They live in the bottom goo and are usually red in color(called bloodworms), but not all of them. At some point they rise to the surface to hatch. I have pulled them from muck as deep as 50 feet or so on Oliver Lake on my anchor so they can be found quite deep.



https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/biology-and-control-of-non-biting-aquatic-midges

 
“The trouble with quotes on the Internet is you never know if they are genuine.” —Abraham Lincoln

taxid

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Re: Oliver Lake Rainbow stomach contents
« Reply #13 on: Jun 25, 2020, 04:29 AM »
thats what im leaning towards after looking on net a while.  I didn't get the magnifying glass out to see much detail on them.  probably should have.  interesting how lively they were even after 5+hours on ice in the fish.

I used to see live zooplankton in trout stomach contents after cleaning trout in Massachusetts.
“The trouble with quotes on the Internet is you never know if they are genuine.” —Abraham Lincoln

bogtrotter

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Re: Oliver Lake Rainbow stomach contents
« Reply #14 on: Jun 25, 2020, 09:31 AM »
Scary looking stuff.  Looks like the creature that pops out of the guy's stomach in the movie Alien.

 



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