Soft Plastics and fish

[UserRemoved1]

http://www.pressconnects.com/article...ORTS/907300376

Has anyone here ever cut open the stomach of a striper or bluefish and found rubber???

[FishermanTim]

So the bottom line is that FARM RAISED trout are as stupid as dirt?
Notice in the article that they fed the fish rubber baits.

Quote "It seems that biologists fed 38 captive brook trout a commercial trout diet mixed with a free-choice assortment of soft plastic lures over a 90-day period. "

Gee, if you're a hungry fish, and some idiot throws a realistic looking worm in your face, you bet your a$$ you'd eat it.

Maybe if these "Einsteins" tried to fish for the trout, they'd get a truer representation of the facts: Fish will TRY TO EAT the plastic, but since every fisherman that uses plastics doesn't want to lose his lure, I doubt the fish would have a chance in hell of actually swallowing them. They make it sound like we, individually, dump ALL of our plastic when we leave a brook or stream.
As for discaring used plastics, that's the googan faction at work, making us all look bad.

Maybe these so-called geniuses should go back to collecting cow-farts and leave the fish alone.

[Raven]

i have never caught a wild trout on a plastic soft bait.
well, a trout has chased a rubber cricket but he chose
not to eat it...



the second part of that article concerning sportsman's rights
to hunt in jeopardy................. i found far more interesting.

that guy in office wouldn't last to long if he took that stance.

[jkswimmer]

I do not know if this was intended scare people or in form them. I saw DVD on trout behavour and trout take everything into their mouths, that is how they feel or touch things. The things that are not food like they spit out. That is the hit you feel and set on with no results. So ya throw some soft food like rubber into a hatchery pool the fish will take it down.

[JohnnyD]

The fish that ate the rubber were thinner.

Could this not be due to the fact that a zero-calorie, zero-nutrient substance was in their stomach taking up space?

This is no different that one person eating a 12oz steak, and another person eating a 4oz steak and drinking 3 glasses of water to fill the rest of the space.

No different than going on a diet - control portion size and you'll decrease weight.

[UserRemoved1]

It makes sense the fish are thinner if the stuff gets stuck in their stomachs that's not good. But it got me to thinking in all the striper stomach's I've ever cut open to see what they were eating, I've never ever come across rubber in a stripers belly. So i'm wondering if it is a problem in saltwater or yes this is just another in a long series of scare tactics which you can google the history of soft plastics/fish.

[Raven]

well even canadian geese who are mainly grass eating birds die when they eat wonder bread thrown to them by well meaning humans because it has so few nutrients left in it... it turns into a plastic wad in their intestine and plugs them up...

fish don't seem to have much trouble regurgitating stomach contents so i think it's a non issue... i haven't seen any photo's of dissected fish entrails that are clogged with plastics to prove this theory .... so i call it Peta

[Headhunter]

From quite an exstensive crosssection the only things that I ever found in a stripers stomach that wasn't suppossed to be there are remnants of dunking, and once I found a hook. PETA

[Crafty Angler]

I saw a stockie a few years back that turned out to have a 5" Senko in it's gullet after it was filleted - so yeah, it does happen

[FishermanTim]

Ok, so some trout hav been known to ingest rubber lures.
But in the article and examples provided here, they seem to be "stocked" trout.
If you see the feeding habit of stocked trout, they are typically fed in bulk and feed voraciously. That would account for their ingesting a loy of plastics along with food. Releasing a stocked trout into a brook or stream doesn't change that feeding habit for quite some time.
That's why people will follow the stocking trucks, because they know the trout will hit practically anything they throw at them.

Now if they had done a study of native/wild trout, and came up with the same conclusions, I'd be more inclined to agree with their assessment.
That's part of the reason why I don't follow the trucks, and give a particular body of water a couple of weeks for the fish to get acclimated to the environment.

[JohnnyD]

Originally Posted by FishermanTim

Ok, so some trout hav been known to ingest rubber lures.
But in the article and examples provided here, they seem to be "stocked" trout.
If you see the feeding habit of stocked trout, they are typically fed in bulk and feed voraciously. That would account for their ingesting a loy of plastics along with food. Releasing a stocked trout into a brook or stream doesn't change that feeding habit for quite some time.
That's why people will follow the stocking trucks, because they know the trout will hit practically anything they throw at them.

Now if they had done a study of native/wild trout, and came up with the same conclusions, I'd be more inclined to agree with their assessment.
That's part of the reason why I don't follow the trucks, and give a particular body of water a couple of weeks for the fish to get acclimated to the environment.

Very well said.

[MAKAI]

Originally Posted by JohnnyD

The fish that ate the rubber were thinner.

Could this not be due to the fact that a zero-calorie, zero-nutrient substance was in their stomach taking up space?

This is no different that one person eating a 12oz steak, and another person eating a 4oz steak and drinking 3 glasses of water to fill the rest of the space.

No different than going on a diet - control portion size and you'll decrease weight.

4 ounce steak, Christ I don't even chew a piece that small.

[Got Stripers]

Yeah, I've known my plastic is harmful to fish, they usually end up being a diner guest

[The Dad Fisherman]

And they're worried about a few rubber worms.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_P..._Garbage_Patch