My pond was again partially open this evening, so I took out two trout for dinner. Both about 12-1/2 inches.

The first one I cleaned was full of eggs. Just kind of a neat surprise. As I would expect, its stomach was completely empty.

But, the stomach of the second trout was packed full of pine needles!

Ever since I was a little kid I've nearly always looked in the stomachs of fish that I clean. This is the first time I've ever found pine needles.

Ken

Wow! I wonder what led that trout to eat pine needles.

Granted I'm in a much more temperate climate than you, Ken, but I also found eggs inside some of the bass I culled last weekend. Their stomachs were also full of 1-2" BG...late spawn I suppose?


If that trout's stomach was "packed full" of the needles, eating them wasn't a one-time thing. Any thoughts on what's going on?

One thing that occurred to me is that this fish might have inadvertently swallowed the pine needles while harvesting forage fish.

Last spring I threw about 20-25 pine into the north and west sides of my pond. Most are close to shore, partially submerged. Last weekend it got reasonably warm, and the pond was completely free of ice. There was lots of activity near the shore, in and around these pine trees. I figured it was small bass or bluegill. Every once in a while there would be a lot of splashing.

Is is possible that the trout might have gotten some small BG or LMB, along with a mouthful of needles -- and the forage has been digested, but not the pine needles??

Ken

Ken --
That's what so neat about rainbows in ponds -- you never know what they'll try to eat next!
Seriously, I wanted to ask: do you have a significant snail population in your pond? For some reason, rainbows really like snails.
I once had a very abundant snail population in my pond. No more. They rainbows really cropped them down. I still have some. A friend of mine is an entomologist and he did some sampling a couple times last year and turned up a few but he had expected to find more. When I told him about the former abundance of snails, he said he wasn't surprised that the rainbows had worked on them.
So, my best guess -- and it's only a guess: there were some small snails colonizing in the downed pine trees, and the trout found 'em!
Only other possible thing I can think of -- sometimes hatchery rainbows go through a search and sample phase in acclimating to a new environment. Their image search for food is still pretty much pellet-oriented. But if they are not finding many, they will likely sample sundry other items/critters that might be food.
A biologist told me once that a lot of stocker rainbows in public waters that don't get caught right away can wind up starving or succumbing to disease relating to starvation or malnutrition -- unless they luck into a successful (nutritional) feeding regimen. It was interesting in that he noted almost all rainbows somehow recognize midges as food -- apparently because that's a type of insect that can be found in hatchery rearing ponds and even some raceways.
So, my two guesses: they were working over some snails, or still in some kind of search mode.
It will be interesting to hear more ideas/thoughts from other folks with trout ponds. -- Mike in Lexington, VA

pine marinada trout ala catmandoo

i once caught a landlocked king at folsom lake....the fish was a healthy 26 inches and 5 pounds......he had cigarette butts in his stomach...

several times in the past i've caught trout that had little treble hooks and undigested store bought salmon eggs or power bait in stomach.....the trebles taught me to be careful when cleaning trout from public reservoirs.

i've also caught trout w/ bellies full of mollusks....little snails and gastropod looking things.

i've caught trout full of brine shrimp (looks like apple sauce partially digested), threadfin shad, assorted insects, you name it.

larval trawling is fun huh?

My guess would be the food he was eating digested faster than the pine needles.

Or I would imagine trout are just like humans, there are always a few oddballs!

Catmandoo,
I would highly recommend an almond encrusted fish recipe for your trout! I will try to get that to you, it is simply AMAZING!

Thanks All,

DIED really hit it on the head. When I told my wife about the pine needles, her first words were "I hope they don't taste like pine trees!"



We had several interruptions right after I cleaned the fish , so the fillets are on ice in the refrigerator for tonight's dinner.

As for snails, I must have them, but I don't remember seeing them in the bluegill or bass. I hope to get red ears in this spring, so that should give me a clue.

I will say that the trout have been a real treat this winter. We usually don't get enough ice for safe ice fishing. But each time the water has opened, I've been able to go fishing. Since I pretty much wiped out my crappie, the trout have given me a good excuse to fish this winter.

Ken