How many of you when cleaning fish...

[lookin for the gills]

Go inside the intestines and the stomach to see what the fish have been feeding on recently?

Just curious, my dad got me into doing that and it seems to help out a little if you go out the next day. One time I kept finding minnows in Bluegills so I went out the next night with minnows and low and behold I limited out when everyone else around me wasnt getting a bite:D .

[teacup13]

Go inside the intestines and the stomach to see what the fish have been feeding on recently?

Just curious, my dad got me into doing that and it seems to help out a little if you go out the next day. One time I kept finding minnows in Bluegills so I went out the next night with minnows and low and behold I limited out when everyone else around me wasnt getting a bite:D .

i do the same thing

[The Whale]

Always. Love to do a little "autopsy" on the fish to see what was the main food source of the day ! My Walleyes, my usual quarry, typically are empty though, puzzles me. Very rarely do they contain anything, sometimes when the "feed" is on they're busting with minnows/shiners/shad etc., but usually empty stomachs. Super fast digestive tract maybe ?

[aslongasitpullsback]

Only on the larger spiecies [trout,salmon.walleyes,and Northerns]
Gives you a good idea on matching the hatch.....

[WALLEYE MIKE]

Always. Love to do a little "autopsy" on the fish to see what was the main food source of the day ! My Walleyes, my usual quarry, typically are empty though, puzzles me. Very rarely do they contain anything, sometimes when the "feed" is on they're busting with minnows/shiners/shad etc., but usually empty stomachs. Super fast digestive tract maybe ?

Yup, same here.

[EightIsEnuff]

They say it takes only six hours to digest what they take in.

[Knight]

I caught a 12.25" perch saturday, she had a 2" partially digested rock bass in her stomach and..................... grubs in her flesh:(

[AutoModGod]

I caught a 13.5 inch perch on Saturday and a 13.75 inch perch on Sunday (from different lakes no less). Both had baby gills in their stomachs. :D

[sfw1960]

Jeff ,
Usually they'll hurl - after all ~ if you had a big@zz treble hook half way down yer gullet - would'nt ya YaK to try & get rid of it???
:lol:
I know I would!!
Heck yes I look... KARVE 'EM UP !!
:evilsmile

[KI Jim]

Oh yeah! the fish cleaning slice and dice! I commonly examine the fishes stomachs. Something else I have done is if I am out perch fishing and run out of bait, I will cut open the perch I have and take partially digested minnows out of their stomach and use them for bait-they seem to work even better than live shinners (if someone from PETA is reading this, I bet they just had a stroke :lol: )

Jim

[Natlight]

I cleaned 3 pike on Sunday and 2 out of 3 had somebody else's treble hooks still in them. One pike even had the 4 inch leader still attached. The other pike still had the 6 inch sucker in it's belly with the hook still attached. I couldn't understand why the electric filet knife wouldn't cut and kept getting hung up. :dizzy:

[Captain Happy]

I'd love to, but since I haven't caught sh--, the last 3 times out, the only contents I'm examining is the bottom of a Bud can! I'm still steaming over why the D.N.R. guy was at the Selfridge ramp this past Monday, so I had to pay to park, my god it was Presidents day, I thought all goverment employees had the day off, since I don't own a boat, 4 wheeler, snowmobile, I thought $6 bucks is a little steep for a daily.

[Chawazz]

Yeah, on some fish. Just a curiosity thing. I've got a walleye that was choking and spitting up gobs of minnows. Funny thing is it hit a leech under a slip bobber. I guess when they are on the feedbag . . . other times caught 'em all with empty stomachs.

Small bluegills do seem to be a favorite of some of the predators (walleye, pike, bass).

[walleyeman2006]

allways do it ...perch walleye pike some times are empty but i have yet to catch a laker with and empty stomach lol

[Mike sands]

I caught a perch this weekend with 2 small crayfish in it's stomach. Very suprised to see that. I know perch love crayfish, but I thought they hibernated this time of year.....

[bully06]

I always do the perch autopsy to see what they are snacking on. I usually clean them in my basement laundry room. I get a kick out of the wife running around the house lighting yankee candles everywhere due to the perch autopsy.

[N.E. Outdoorsman]

I always do the perch autopsy to see what they are snacking on. I usually clean them in my basement laundry room. I get a kick out of the wife running around the house lighting yankee candles everywhere due to the perch autopsy.

Wow. I could have written the same post. Same fish station in basement and same wife with fish-guts-a-phobia :lol: with a touch of candlescent-to-fix-me-a.

[Chawazz]

I caught a perch this weekend with 2 small crayfish in it's stomach. Very suprised to see that. I know perch love crayfish, but I thought they hibernated this time of year.....

We had a "suprise guest" take a minnow throught he ice in 13FOW last year. He just hung on to that minnow with a claw and rode it all the way up to to the hole :SHOCKED:

I'm guessing they slow down but don't hibernate.

http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/photopost/data/533/medium/crayfish.jpg

[Capnhook]

We had lobsterettes in the holes up at Simcoe the entire time we were fishing. They could still move pretty well even as cold as they were. They would go after anything we put down there. Capnhook

[USMarine1171]

I caught a 12.25" perch saturday, she had a 2" partially digested rock bass in her stomach and..................... grubs in her flesh:(

Same here, rockbass in the stomach of the biggest perch. Grubs? More nutrients I suppose, just fry'em up! I'd be more worried about the potential of accumulated levels of heavy metals and environmental pollutants. You can't cook them out.

Also, I saw a crayfish on the bottom earlier in the year.

[rbeer]

always... any knowledge i can glean i try to use. it is amazing to open a
30+ inch skamania steelhead and see it has a gizzard full of tiny midges! how many no-see-ums does it take to make dinner?
i caught a good size whitefish on the pier this fall that had to have about 75+ chinook salmon eggs in him. what a piggy!
i often will gut the first panfish or two and see what's was for lunch.

[Bagman]

Its amazing how much they can hold. This came out of a 30" northern plus another sunfish and the shiner it ate off the tip up.


[/IMG]http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/photopost/data/527/medium/P2110024.JPG

[unclecbass]

Just depends on the time of year with walleye. In May when I catch them in canada they are full of minnows. When I run out of bait I just give them a little squeeze and they puke up perfectly usefull partially digested minnows for me to keep on using. I once caught a big laketrout ice fishing that had waat appeared to be a 12 inch herring or whitefish in its stomach. That was the biggest treat I have found in a fish autopsy. :fish:

[RichP]

I also frequently do autopsies on my catches.

So far, in 100% of the investigations the causes of deaths have been related to me.

[fasthunter]

I usually just fillet most of them out, but I have done it before. I've found crayfish, minnows, other fish, ect. I know it sounds gross, but I've done it to deer before too. Sometimes it teaches you something about them and it can pay out later.

[fasthunter]

We had a "suprise guest" take a minnow throught he ice in 13FOW last year. He just hung on to that minnow with a claw and rode it all the way up to to the hole :SHOCKED:

I'm guessing they slow down but don't hibernate.

http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/photopost/data/533/medium/crayfish.jpg
That's pretty cool!

[jeremy L]

i do it on all bigger fish, sometimes on the little guys. Gotta love lakers, finding a mudpuppy, a 4 inch tubebait, a a foot leader with 6 inch rubber worm, and the best of all a golfball sized rock has allowed me to come to the conclusion that lakers will eat anything that moves and that fits into thier mouth.

[greelhappy]

I have checked the stomachs of perch I have caught with crayfish in them that I thought were still alive. And all the crayfish were facing the same way in the stomach. What that means I don't know. My theory is that the perch scan the bottom at night when the crayfish come out to eat. Why else would they be whole and alive looking, when the perch are caught early in the morning. I will say that the fish I'm talking about were caught in the summer.A few years ago I passed the crayfish info to a friend of mine who livesin the Detroit area. He bought some crayfish, came up to fish and killed monster perch on them. For whatever reason you cannot buy live crayfish in Sanilac County where I live.

[Oldgrandman]

I caught a little 8-9 inch brookie that looked like it swallowed a ping pong ball once. Was full of little black bugs that resembled ants. Not being a fly fisherman (or too bright back then) I did not know what they were, but he sure found the mother load and gobbled up a baby crawler to boot. Talk about a pig! Unfortunately I didn't take a picture.
And often when you catch fish they are feeding heavily like that and spit up stuff when you get em in, had this happen a lot.
Yeah, I check out their contents.

[wcalcaterra]

I opened a pike up that had a 14 inch Walleye in it.

Does that mean I brought in an illegal fish??

Wait thats right I was in Canada, so the small ones would be OK.

[fasthunter]

I opened a pike up that had a 14 inch Walleye in it.

Does that mean I brought in an illegal fish??

Wait thats right I was in Canada, so the small ones would be OK.:yikes: :yikes: WOW!!!!!

[Whitetail70]

I opened a pike up that had a 14 inch Walleye in it.

Does that mean I brought in an illegal fish??

Wait thats right I was in Canada, so the small ones would be OK.W, If that was my dad you were with, didn't all the bigger fish have an extra fish in the mouth/belly?:lol: