Wedger Posted September 14, 2005 Report Share Posted September 14, 2005 From a few weeks ago here's Steve Porter's report of my last shark day. Friday 26th August. Our third attempt this year to catch a shark. Fairly blustery conditions made fishing difficult but within ten minutes of having "Sea Magnet" rubby-dubby in the water we had a large porbeagle on the surface by the boat. The shark seemed very interested with one of our balloon floats and we expected it to take the bait at any moment. Sadly the fish became entangled in the line. This appeared to spook the shark causing it to swim off at speed dragging the float behind it until it eventually came free. That was our last shark encounter of the day. One success of the day however was our trial to keep small rainbow trout alive in our live bait tank. About twenty trout remained in a healthy state all day in seawater, dispite being bred and reared in fresh water where they had remained right up until just yesterday. The reason for the experiment was to have an alternative bass bait once the mackerel began to thin out. I tried out a 6 inch live trout as bait lowering it to the seabed 120 feet below and then reteaving it. The trout coped well and remained very active. On lowering it the second time I kept it on the bottom and within 5 minutes had my first bite. The fish was hooked and landed. It was a bass of just over 6lb. This fish caught not on a known bass mark, but on a featureless seabed on a neap tide proved that small trout are a good alternative bait. The bass was returned to the sea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob F Posted September 14, 2005 Report Share Posted September 14, 2005 Very interesting read. BF Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swainiac Posted September 15, 2005 Report Share Posted September 15, 2005 Trevor, I've caught Rainbows over In Northern Ireland In the River Bush, which the locals called "Steelheads". There were deffinately Rainbows, but very dark in colour, and covered in sea lice, all taken while Salmon Fishing. I obviously can't say whether they had definately been at sea, but the prescence of the sea lice would indicate brackish waters at least. Perhaps they carry the same gene that allows other salmonids to survive in both fresh and sea water? Very interesting trial though. Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wedger Posted September 15, 2005 Author Report Share Posted September 15, 2005 Hi Richard, The Salmonids family carry what are commonly referred to as salt cells in the gills. These become active as the juveniles grow and commonly will allow any trout or salmon to tolerate salt water after 6 months of age or so. Evolutionary wise this suggests that our modern trout have evolved from families that routinely lived in salt to brackish water at some point, returning to fresh water to spawn. Good examples of both are our atlantic salmon and our sea trout version of Salmo trutta. The rainbows we farm today are a domesticated outbreed from both the shasta and steelhead rainbows. Apparently the pure strains of both were not ideally suited to farming, but this basic function of salt tolerance remains. It must be one of the fundamental components of salmonids to have remained functional across a wide range of family members and through cross breeding. Some may be better at it than others but we are able to farm both rainbows and browns in salt water, although I believe estuarine waters are preferred for brown trout. T Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wedger Posted September 15, 2005 Author Report Share Posted September 15, 2005 Actually sounds like your Irish steelheads are stocked (or escaped fish) that have returned to the sea running habit for survival reasons. i.e. avoiding adversity such as poor food high temperature acid flush etc. or perhaps the grub is just better at McDonald's than O'Connor's. The steelhead might be just a (sales pitch) label. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swainiac Posted September 16, 2005 Report Share Posted September 16, 2005 Trevor, thanks......we learn a little every day, I havent heard that from rocket ron!!!! Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wedger Posted September 16, 2005 Author Report Share Posted September 16, 2005 He was probably traveling tooooooooooooo fast to notice Cheers Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JIMBOB Posted September 16, 2005 Report Share Posted September 16, 2005 Trevor, I too found your trial interesting, I wouldn't have thought rainbows tolerated salt water as i'm more used to using them for winter pike bait!. But saying that there so good for pike because there constantly swimmimg and working the water, so it figures that if they could handle saltwater they would make good bass bait They're not alone, Tilapia from Africa are a freshwater fish and they can take fresh to sea water in their stride also! But most fish would die instantly. Wouldn't mind a trial with those trout myself Trevor James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wedger Posted September 17, 2005 Author Report Share Posted September 17, 2005 A PM awaits your attention James. T Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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