Stomach Contents - Kayak Fishing Adventures on Big Water’s Edge

taggermike · 08-26-2014, 08:42 PM

I usually check stomach contents on the fish I catch. I don't know that it helps me catch more fish but I find it interesting. In warm water fish digest their food fast, I'd guess after a 1/2 hour you'd have trouble making a visual ID. If you really care or need to know you can count vertebrae or fins spine. The pen and beak of squid stays intact much longer than the body will. Crustacean and shelled mollusks are identifiable for much longer. I caught a YT last month on a surface iron cast in to a school of nervous sardines. The YT had squid, smelt, and juvenile rockfish in it's stomach but no sardines. That seamed kinda strange to me. In college I helped a grad student friend collect the stomach contents of bat rays. There was a oyster farm operation in Humboldt Bay that was killing bat ray under the belief that the rays were eating their oysters. They would find where the rays had been rooting around in the oyster beds as well as shattered oyster shells. They had a permit to drag a big trawl over their beds to catch, and kill, the rays. 100s and 100s of bat rays. What my friend found from stomach contents was that the rays did indeed eat oysters, but not too many. Their main food items on and around the beds were actually rock crabs and blood worms. The crabs and worms are both big predators of small oysters. The rays were actually helping the oyster farm by removing the crabs and worms and the company immediately stopped the netting. Yay, happy ending. Mike

Lipripper92592 · 08-27-2014, 09:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by taggermike

I usually check stomach contents on the fish I catch. I don't know that it helps me catch more fish but I find it interesting. In warm water fish digest their food fast, I'd guess after a 1/2 hour you'd have trouble making a visual ID. If you really care or need to know you can count vertebrae or fins spine. The pen and beak of squid stays intact much longer than the body will. Crustacean and shelled mollusks are identifiable for much longer. I caught a YT last month on a surface iron cast in to a school of nervous sardines. The YT had squid, smelt, and juvenile rockfish in it's stomach but no sardines. That seamed kinda strange to me. In college I helped a grad student friend collect the stomach contents of bat rays. There was a oyster farm operation in Humboldt Bay that was killing bat ray under the belief that the rays were eating their oysters. They would find where the rays had been rooting around in the oyster beds as well as shattered oyster shells. They had a permit to drag a big trawl over their beds to catch, and kill, the rays. 100s and 100s of bat rays. What my friend found from stomach contents was that the rays did indeed eat oysters, but not too many. Their main food items on and around the beds were actually rock crabs and blood worms. The crabs and worms are both big predators of small oysters. The rays were actually helping the oyster farm by removing the crabs and worms and the company immediately stopped the netting. Yay, happy ending. Mike

It's nice when science is fact based, not based on emotions. Sounds like a cool project and a positive outcome.

The pelican · 08-27-2014, 09:16 AM

Bob - They could have been langostino. This was about 5 years ago and I had only been fishing for a short time and bugging a couple times so I guess I could have been confused. Good point.

Mike - Sick story! Good info on the digestion rate. Where'd you come up with that? Educated guess? I would have thought it takes much longer for a meal to digest but have nothing to back that up.

Last summer I caught a YT full of squid and one sanddab. The yellow was caught on the surface, w a flylined greenie, in the kelp. This fish had clearly been eating on the bottom outside of the kelp forest. The next week I went out a couple times to conduct an expiriment. I covered some ground in areas near my previous catch that seemed like they would hold squid nests and dabs. Spent a ton of time looking at the fish finder. My hope was to be the first one to my own secret squid bite. Never found a nest and didn't get any results. Anyone else use this strategy and come up with good results or do you guys think it's a waste of time?

Pat

RK · 08-27-2014, 09:51 AM

If you are really interested in stomach contents, digestion, etc. contact Dos Ballenas on here, Owyn would love to talk guts and intestines with you.
Or better yet if you see him on the hook at two in the morning camped out on a squid bed asleep just peddle over and wake him he'll love it....

08-26-2014, 08:42 PM	#1
taggermike Senior Member Join Date: May 2007 Location: Chula Vista Posts: 1,589	I usually check stomach contents on the fish I catch. I don't know that it helps me catch more fish but I find it interesting. In warm water fish digest their food fast, I'd guess after a 1/2 hour you'd have trouble making a visual ID. If you really care or need to know you can count vertebrae or fins spine. The pen and beak of squid stays intact much longer than the body will. Crustacean and shelled mollusks are identifiable for much longer. I caught a YT last month on a surface iron cast in to a school of nervous sardines. The YT had squid, smelt, and juvenile rockfish in it's stomach but no sardines. That seamed kinda strange to me. In college I helped a grad student friend collect the stomach contents of bat rays. There was a oyster farm operation in Humboldt Bay that was killing bat ray under the belief that the rays were eating their oysters. They would find where the rays had been rooting around in the oyster beds as well as shattered oyster shells. They had a permit to drag a big trawl over their beds to catch, and kill, the rays. 100s and 100s of bat rays. What my friend found from stomach contents was that the rays did indeed eat oysters, but not too many. Their main food items on and around the beds were actually rock crabs and blood worms. The crabs and worms are both big predators of small oysters. The rays were actually helping the oyster farm by removing the crabs and worms and the company immediately stopped the netting. Yay, happy ending. Mike

08-27-2014, 09:16 AM	#3
The pelican Member Join Date: Apr 2013 Location: La Jolla Posts: 82	Bob - They could have been langostino. This was about 5 years ago and I had only been fishing for a short time and bugging a couple times so I guess I could have been confused. Good point. Mike - Sick story! Good info on the digestion rate. Where'd you come up with that? Educated guess? I would have thought it takes much longer for a meal to digest but have nothing to back that up. Last summer I caught a YT full of squid and one sanddab. The yellow was caught on the surface, w a flylined greenie, in the kelp. This fish had clearly been eating on the bottom outside of the kelp forest. The next week I went out a couple times to conduct an expiriment. I covered some ground in areas near my previous catch that seemed like they would hold squid nests and dabs. Spent a ton of time looking at the fish finder. My hope was to be the first one to my own secret squid bite. Never found a nest and didn't get any results. Anyone else use this strategy and come up with good results or do you guys think it's a waste of time? Pat

08-27-2014, 09:51 AM	#4
RK Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2010 Posts: 736	If you are really interested in stomach contents, digestion, etc. contact Dos Ballenas on here, Owyn would love to talk guts and intestines with you. Or better yet if you see him on the hook at two in the morning camped out on a squid bed asleep just peddle over and wake him he'll love it....