Gather some fish poop and perform an experiment, you have my attention and curiosity. Drill several holes, mark some fish and put poop down some hole and leave the other holes fresh and see what happens.
Brian, have you seen this happen with other species of fish?
Yes, pretty much every species. It’s easier to detect in deep water catches since it takes so long for the poop to fall thru the water column to the bottom, though I commonly see it with walleyes caught in shallower water of, say, 10’ to 14’.
I can’t be the only one seeing this while ice fishing??
I should have been clearer with my question. I do find this interesting. Esox don’t poop where they eat and other fish avoid that area. Other species will get the poop scared out of them when what they eat pulls them up. Warning other fish that poop has hit the prop wash in that area and it is a bad buffet. Do you think the poop from one species warns off all the other species or is it just predator fish that effect smaller fish? Poop from a bluegill warns other bluegill but does it also warn crappie? How long does this warning hang around.
Like other have said, I think what you are seeing has more to do with the Pheromones that fish give off after a fight and release back into the water. Then again the poop may also contain something similar. When I use to do some tourney Bass fishing, you would never release fish directly over a active school of feeding fish. We would always put every fish caught in the livewell until we reached out total legal limit. We then would move off a decent distance and cull fish down to our tourney limit. Go back and keep fishing and keep repeating. I do remember times where if you released fish directly back into the school that the bite did seems to die off rather fast.
Thumper, you raise a valid point because what I experience in the ice hole may indeed have more to do with Schreckstoff response than to normal defecation avoidance. I believe what Gord Pyzer was discussing was ordinary defecation sites vs. defecation in the stress of a fight or in response partially to barotrauma. Schreckstoff is a real thing and your example is a good way to help reduce the effects.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
