Preforming a autopsy or troutopsy as I like to call it doesn't take any medical or biological degrees just a sharp fillet knife and a voracious appetite for the fishing knowledge. What lies in a trout belly can unlock secrets to how they are living and most importantly what they are eating. This allows for accurate lure/bait selection, insight and in this case some very interesting surprises.
First lets meet the cadavers. Three fine female Brookies slated to meet their fate in the bottom of my stomach. The tackle used to land these beauties was a Brookie printed Algonquin wobbler so I expected to find maybe some smaller trout or juvenile salmon in the stomach of the fish but to my surprise this is what I found.
A collection of partially digested sticklebacks looks like something more out of a black duck or loons diet but with these being cannibalistic fish as verified by the taking of the Algonquin wobbler I am not all that surprised.
The trout eggs pulled from one stomach are amazing or at least to me. The only way I figure these eggs could possibly make it into the stomach without being destroyed may be that they had time to become water hardened. Also the time period between the trout ingesting the eggs and the point where I removed them from the stomach must of been short to due to the lack of digestion.
This little fellow appears to be what is left of a leech. Normal diet of a trout but not so much here as in other parts of the country.
Finally there is this interesting looking still yet to be identified specimen. First I assumed it was a worm but then I noticed the tail and spinal structure where what is defiantly flesh that has been digested away.
I started to look at the head noticing I could see down the mouth of what ever it is. I pushed the tip of my knife into the mouth much the way a horse wears a bit in the back of it's jaw. To my surprise four little teeth protruded from it's mouth biting down on my knife. The teeth that are visible came from the outer most part of the jaw top and bottom similar to a snake with four fangs but placed like the Predator from that old Arnold Schwarzenegger movie.
Perhaps there were more teeth but the digestion process has already wore them away. Also it looks to have eye sockets and the bite mark on its back appears to indicate that it was swimming when it was hit. Wonder what it is?
To end this troutopsy I want to talk about what it all means. This is a guess but I think the pond has a lower than normal amount of feed present and the trout are being more opportunistic and less the picky eaters that our Brookies are known for.
Over the years I have seen the stomach contents of hundreds of fish and I could hold in one hand the sticklebacks from the contents. Never have I seen a egg in a trouts stomach although we all know that they eat them and that other creature what ever it is proves no matter how much you think you know their is always something to discover. Till next time tight lines...FishinDan
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