Stomach Contents

[agentaqua]

Are those Chovies? Or juvenile Salmon?

A great & tough question to answer, EP. It's obvious that the gastric juices in that Chinook tummy quickly dissolve most of the normal key ID meristics used to speciate small forage fishes - like the presence of an adipose fin, scales, etc. Only salmon & smelts have an adipose - herring & anchovies do not. Herring also have a lower jaw that protrudes; and large scales that easily slough off (that you can see if it is not too digested), and a strongly forked caudal tail. Smelts, on the other hand not only have an adipose but also have a small mouth, maxilla not reaching mideye;
and a short pectoral fin:

 

[agentaqua]

One of the meristics that I would anticipate dissolve slower would be the gill rakers inside of their mouth. You can usually ID to Order and often species using this metric:

 

[agentaqua]

 

[agentaqua]

Are those Chovies? Or juvenile Salmon?

Anyways - long story short - I would bet that almost all of those bait fish were herring. The one that I am unsure of is the one in the lower right of the pic. Almost looks like a juvie salmon - but hard to say w/o seeing an adipose in the pic or any other ID characteristics.

 

[KENW]

Cleaned a spring last week in Port Renfrew and it had 2 juvenile wolf eels in it

 

[trophywife]

One day your Mrs. will learn that flip flops are indispensable. Ew

i would never wear open shoes while jigging.. safety third.

 

[seahorse]

Contents of coho off Hornby Island a few weeks ago

 

[Squire]

i would never wear open shoes while jigging.. safety third.

I am barefoot or wearing sandals on the boat for most of July and August when fishing calmer inside waters. I’m far more likely to take a hook to the hands or head and I choose not to wear gloves or a helmet either.

 

[Bugs]

Are those Chovies? Or juvenile Salmon?

Pretty confident that most, if not all of those are juvenile salmon. Interestingly, as part of the BC adult salmon diet program we see a much higher incidence of juvenile salmon in Coho diets than Chinook diets. This plot shows frequency of occurrence, error bars are standard error.

Just a plug for those of you interested in stomach contents to contribute to the UVic/PSF adult salmon diet program. Each stomach is an entry to win an Islander from islander reels, spoon pack from AP tackleworks, or Amundsen from Island Fisherman. You get an annual report of salmon diets in BC and an individual report on the diets of the fish you submit (and how they compare to average). If you contribute 10 or more stomachs there is also some swag.

Go to this link for instructions and printable data cards

https://juaneslab.weebly.com/uploads/2/0/0/1/20017591/asdp_simplified_angler_protocol_and_background_information__new_2024___1_.pdf

 

[trophywife]

I am barefoot or wearing sandals on the boat for most of July and August when fishing calmer inside waters. I’m far more likely to take a hook to the hands or head and I choose not to wear gloves or a helmet either.

lol, nice choice of pink nail polish in the pick.

 

[agentaqua]

Pretty confident that most, if not all of those are juvenile salmon. Interestingly, as part of the BC adult salmon diet program we see a much higher incidence of juvenile salmon in Coho diets than Chinook diets. This plot shows frequency of occurrence, error bars are standard error.

Just a plug for those of you interested in stomach contents to contribute to the UVic/PSF adult salmon diet program. Each stomach is an entry to win an Islander from islander reels, spoon pack from AP tackleworks, or Amundsen from Island Fisherman. You get an annual report of salmon diets in BC and an individual report on the diets of the fish you submit (and how they compare to average). If you contribute 10 or more stomachs there is also some swag.

Go to this link for instructions and printable data cards

https://juaneslab.weebly.com/uploads/2/0/0/1/20017591/asdp_simplified_angler_protocol_and_background_information__new_2024___1_.pdf

View attachment 120209

Adult coho take advantage of whatever they have most available (including hatches of zoeal & megalops stages of crab) while adult Chinook key more into forages fishes, for sure. I could be wrong on my guess - but it's hard to say either way w/o an adipose showing, scales, gill rakers (herring have fine rakers like sockeye smolts; coho and Chinook have short, stout ones) - or any other ID characteristic. All of the eaten forage fish look like they have small, upturned mouths and large eyes - and the operuculum looks different on the one on the bottom right than the others, and a smaller eye, as well.

 

[brutus]

Contents of 2 from today

 

[Aces]

Adult coho take advantage of whatever they have most available (including hatches of zoeal & megalops stages of crab) while adult Chinook key more into forages fishes, for sure. I could be wrong on my guess - but it's hard to say either way w/o an adipose showing, scales, gill rakers (herring have fine rakers like sockeye smolts; coho and Chinook have short, stout ones) - or any other ID characteristic. All of the eaten forage fish look like they have small, upturned mouths and large eyes - and the operuculum looks different on the one on the bottom right than the others, and a smaller eye, as well.

I concur

 

[adanac]

What about the oddballs you guys have found . A list of odd fish I’ve found in stomach contents are

- small sand dabs in winter chinook
- shiner perch gorged winters at times
- juvenile pollock
- last season I had a mid 20’s chinook puke up a whole 12” mostly digested jack boat side
- saw a rinocerous auklet cut out of a 75lb halibuts gut in Haida gwaii

 

[EstevanPoint]

We caught a roughly 20lbs Chinook in Haida Gwaii with a 5lbs pollock (or something similar) half out of its mouth. The front half was starting to get digested, the back half was still looking fresh. Somehow it was still able to grab the cutplug… that’s probably the “weirdest” for me.

 

[trophywife]

Contents of 2 from today

sandlance? where? offshore 23-1?

 

[Don Haraguchi]

Found a whole skate with a 14” wingspan inside a Ling off of Nootka. He was folded up like a taco

 

[Birdman]

What about the oddballs you guys have found . A list of odd fish I’ve found in stomach contents are

- small sand dabs in winter chinook
- shiner perch gorged winters at times
- juvenile pollock
- last season I had a mid 20’s chinook puke up a whole 12” mostly digested jack boat side
- saw a rinocerous auklet cut out of a 75lb halibuts gut in Haida gwaii

juvenile rockfish inside chinook, at times gorged

numerous large chinook that appeared to be 10 plus pounds inside large lings of 40 plus pounds (not the usual pinks and coho)

whole cutplugs sans hooks inside chinooks

whole hoochies inside chinooks

seabirds of various types and states of digestion inside large lingcod

flounder, pollock, hake and pacific cod inside chinooks, sometimes surprisingly large (12 inches or so), usually in the spring for some reason

very large american shad inside large halibut

sauries (the favorite of albacore tuna) inside coho feeding way offshore

juvenile wolf eel (I think) inside chinook

 

[trophywife]

less stories, more pics.

 

[Tips Up]

Strangest thing I found was a Berkley power bait frog in a small halibut. That was near a creek mouth. Figured it may have come down the creek? There is an old thread on here somewhere about it that I started and others chimed in with the weird stuff.