[TL]

Sloth,

Went fishin' yesterday @ S. Catamount (the one up pikes peak). We went a few days before to the ole honey hole & took 7 home. It was packed yesterday so we decided to fish a different spot. . We hiked in about 20 min or so. Found a spot & I threw 1 pole with a worm on the bottom & 1 pole with a bobber. Anyway while I had a massive hit on the pole on the bottom. Went to set the hook & my line snapped. An hour or two went by & then bang another big hit on the bottom. Busted my f****** line again. 10 min later my cousin says hey T.L. theres your line (last week I had the same thing happen & I retrieved the line a pulled a rainbow in by hand) Ryno had a lure on & he got just the end of my line. I hand reeled in this big a** cutbow by hand, he had a mouth like a walleye & was at least 15 in. & the belly on this fish was just full, so I was anxious to put a blade t him & see what was in his gut. To my surprise he must have had at least 30 little mussels/snails in his gut. Have you ever witnessed this before? And oh yeah the pole that keeps snapping the line is the Cherrywood, & I'm sure that the lack of ceramic guides are the reason for my line being weak, so be careful when fishing with these hunks of junk . I noticed all of the meat were digested on these little bastards. Will the fish's internal digestive acids break htese shells down or is this bad for the fish? Man you should have seen the fillets off of this fish. One last note. If these fish are consuming all of these snails, what would be a good bait of choice for them on the bottom.

TL

 

[epic]

Sounds like worms would be a good choice for bait as thats what you used to get him to bite the first time. They will pass the snail shell in time, it does no harm to him. This is why the New Zeland mudsnail is so bad. They get eaten and will survive and while they are in the fish stomach they just run around tell they get pooped out. (get the pun ) But they survive.

 

[Oats]

The fish in the South Prk lakes sure do like them, I don't think they would be very good for the digestive track.

 

[jd_anyfishwilldo]

I used to fish a lake near Reno, NV and every October the big rainbows would come in shallow to the weedbeds and eat snails. I would tie some tan and brown wooley buggers that resembled the general color and size (size 12) of the snails. Wham! One evening I landed 7 fish between 18 and 23 inches. One of my best fishing days ever! The fishing would be really good for about 3-4 weeks then would taper off as the weed beds died off.

When you picked these guys up the bellies felt like they were full of marbles.

I guess my point, besides telling my fishing story, is that it isn't unusual for trout to be munching snails. Some of the flyfishing catalogs even sell some pretty realistic snail patterns.

 

[1eyered]

And oh yeah the pole that keeps snapping the line is the Cherrywood, & I'm sure that the lack of ceramic guides are the reason for my line being weak, so be careful when fishing with these hunks of junk.

TL

If it's the same cheap Berkley Cherrywood rod that costs about a lil less than $20 from Wal-Mart then that's the same one as mine. I had that problem with the guides cutting my line, too. In fact, even if it don't cut your line, it'll brittle up your line pretty quick after catching a few hard fighting fish. I replaced the top guide, however, that replacement guide wasn't your top notch Fuji guide either and it seems the problem has returned and I noticed this the last time I was out fishing.

I'd say pay the bigger bucks for a nice "known for quality" rod. I'd say do that with any of your equipment... But then again, I'm a sucker for Wal-Mart priced sugar coated equipment. That Cherrywood does look pretty though eh? 

Here's the one I'm talking about:

And I can't complain. This rod's caught me the bulk of my fish so far this year. Maybe that's why my guides get worn so fast. I change line like once per 3 or 4 successful trips!

1eyeReD

 

[roadkill]

I could have swore that all o those snails were meatless, & the fish's digestive acids had eaten all of the meat away & digested the snail.  I looked pretty closely & they looked hollow.

that is very possible as there are many types of snails and most of them can be digessted just not the shell they get passed

 

[jeremycallahan]

I have noticed the same thing at skagway. Last october the trout had tons of snails in their stomachs. A little reserch i did suggests that they go on this snail binge to prepare for winter.

 

[slayerfish]

The trout at Tarryall all had snails in their belly's also.At least they did before it was drained.

 

[IceInTheVeins]

I have seen this happen a lot with trout in the gunnison gorge. Lots of small snails live in the thick weedbeds that line the outsides of some bends on the Gunnison. The trout root them out and are full of them.