What's in the Guts

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platypus

platypus

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 3, 2011
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136
Location
Okanagan
--What's in the guts?
--Anyone have pictures or good evidence of kokanee diet?

--Recently have had two reports... no pictures of kokanee that had small fish fry in their guts.
--I realize this may not be the usual case but I think Kokanee are opportunistic feeders and will switch to whatever is available although they prefer the plankton and mysis.
--We're having a great debate of if the strike is defensive or are kokanee actually seeking food.
--I need facts as we have lots of anecdotal assumptions.

--Thanks
 
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Green goo all the time! Very few Koke fisheries have mysis available as a food source.
 
I'll just add, one of my friends on another board is a fish biologist and he says that they are filter feeders (period)
 
Never seen other fish/fry... just green goo and bugs.

What is ironic is they are picky about what type of corn is on the hook, yet if they eat corn they can't digest the hulls and it can fatally plug 'em up.
 
Not so, MackPrince. Lots of studies available on the internet,esp. state biologist studies show that corn does not fatally affect fish(of course, if it's on a hook that's another story!)Bob R
 
On the odd but true side, I once caught a trout that had fishing line coming out of his ass. I'm lead to assume they can digest the hook but not the line.
 
SuperD said:
On the odd but true side, I once caught a trout that had fishing line coming out of his ass. I'm lead to assume they can digest the hook but not the line.
Click to expand...

Probably just flossing,bet his dentist told him to floss every crack. Seriously we've caught a few kokes on 3"-4" Sutton spoons ,but all the guts had greenish brown goo with tiny grey-white dots. I check out stomach contacts on every fish I clean and sometimes find interesting stuff but kokes seem to have a one track diet.101chromefish101
 
SuperD said:
I'll just add, one of my friends on another board is a fish biologist and he says that they are filter feeders (period)
Click to expand...

--I presume filter feed is preferred diet..but from now on I am going to do throut pump.. which has the undigested recent meal.. and start collecting data on what they are actually eating.
--Have now seen the pictures of small fry regurgitated by kokanee.. they have been sent to biologists who are studying kokanee in this area... This is the first instance that I have heard of and with the number of kokanee caught I would believe it to be rare.
--I see a couple of probable explanations... like you refused to eat your vegitables but when there was nothing else on the plate...maybe
--The fry just really ticked off this kokanee so reaction strike same as we get on a hoochie
--Some species will eat or kill competators for food although the lake this kokanee was caught in does not appear that kokanee are suffering from lack on nurishment.
--Not commenting on your biologist friend who I presume actually fishes kokanee...however I have found that several of the biologist working on a local kokanee project... don't fish for or have only occasionally caught a fish on a line.. not saying I have to get my finger cut off to have a good idea of what it would feel like.. but I wish more of the fisheries biologists here actually fished and enjoyed fishing.
 
This could also be very much like sharks that have license plates and other debris in their belly. Point being that some things get swallowed either by accident or curiosity. I don't think we can assume all things in the stomach got there by a means of "feeding".
 
--if not feeding kokanee must be the most ticked off fish going if they only strike defensively or out of curiousity.
--also observed behavior of continually dragging lures through a school with no bites... then bite on for short period where almost everyone in the area caught fish. this leads me to believe it is a feeding response however could also be that when feeding they become more agressive to competition and strike out of agression or defense of their food.

--my concern is with the line in the sand attitued when it comes to fish behavior and the policy implications... because biologist advising fisheries insist that sockeye do not bite... they allow flossing as a method of catching sockeye in some areas. we demostrated that kokanee would pursue, bite and be caught using non snagging/flossing methods.. whether it was a strike due to protection of their school or food source they did bite. Thus even if it was not a feeding strike, we demostrated that kokanee... so I expect sockeye can be caught rather than flossed... if so desired.

--for sure I agree that finding fry in the kokanee does not necessarily mean they were feeding on them...

--I'm just asking that if experienced fishers have observed this behavior in other lakes to get a picture or witness if possible to record the frequency.

--It may be that we will find a lake or area where this occurs more often thus could take a closer look to see what factors cause this behavior.

--Maybe this fry catching kokanee is just a slow learner.. as we found evidence of more than one fry in the gut.
 
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If I can add Bugs,Mysis shrimp, are protein not an Algie I have heard evidence of fish in the stomachs of Kokanee . I know and have friends who use coontail shrimp smaller ones to harvest sockeye with a spin-glow on the Columbia River. I think Platypus is correct I think the purpose of a flasher is and aggressive behavior as the fish thinks other kokanee are after this target and make them respond. I'm a firm believer due to the size of the kokanee at Wallala Lake can and will be caught on bait. Fish this big eat other fish, they are at the top of the food chain. I've fish with small herring a lot called (fire crackers) and caught small little 14 inch trout. If I'm fishing a body of water that has large trout or what ever I'm pulling herring a lot. It works.
 
After looking at a lot of kokanee stomachs on Flaming Gorge, most of their diet is zooplankton of which most of that is Daphnia. There have been some rare occasions in the spring, when chironomids are also present in their stomachs.
 
kokes (sockeye) are an aggressive territorial schooling species. ever stir up a hornets nest,
Trolling thru a school of sockeye when their in the strait between Malcolm and Hanson Is. off N. Vancouver Island headed to do their business is like setting off mad bald hornets. Flashers that throw lots of light drive them into kamakazi attack mode.

even a koke's bite can be vicious and very deliberate with other schoolers swarming in at the same time in support, causes many doubles and triples. I usually run 2 poles with an extra slider drop down lure on the reel line

if they're there but not hitting change something. speed up or down, color of flasher, more noisy flasher, larger or smaller lure, hook size. I think scent even is an agression stimulant to them, especially later in the summer as they develop spawning drive.
go watch them in a spawning stream, not nice fishy neighbors or sex partners. they fight, piss each other off by being too close, push, shove, bite and squirt sperm all over each other.

tough fish to physically dig out a hole in the gravel, lay the eggs, defend the eggs with their lives.

anything that comes near the redds gets ripped apart. those huge protruding jaws and fangs work.

http://youtu.be/oXOmNPdbQdE

http://youtu.be/Ydw7CBEefFE
 
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