FALL BACKS OR FRESH FISH?

FALL BACKS OR FRESH FISH?

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FALL BACKS OR FRESH FISH? - 5/9/2008 2:22:37 PM

Happy Guy

Posts: 55
Joined: 3/9/2007
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I hear people talk about fish gaining their "color" back as they return to the lake. Does anyone have any knowledge of the physiological changes that may occur? Do the cuts and scrapes of their journey heal up that quickly that they look like fresh fish or do you think there is a bigger spring run than most people care to believe?

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RE: FALL BACKS OR FRESH FISH? - 5/11/2008 5:57:21 PM

casts_by_fly

Posts: 2464
Joined: 10/18/2000
Status: offline

HG,

Once they drop their eggs/milt, the fish's hormone production changes. They go from 'breeding only' mode back to survival. They start eating everything that they can catch and their bodies start restoring themselves. All of their calorie intake goes into rebuilding their bodies.

I don't think that cuts and scrapes will heal that fast. The fishes' primary goal is to rebuild body mass. Yes, the cuts will be healing from the time that they get them. But they won't be entirely healed.

Yes there are some spring fish. The latest running fish that are coming out of the lake are mid march to the very beginning of april. The streams start to warm just after ice out and the fish can tell. The fish that are in the streams already will have one last push upstream if they got 'stuck' in non-optimum areas. You will have a few fish that run later that may have been stuck in the lake before the spring ice out floods cleared the mouths. Past that though, you aren't getting many new fish to enter the streams. Ohio has some of the latest fish I know because of the more pure bred strain that they stock. In PA the strains have been mixed around so much that the natural run times of the population have been spread around a bunch. That's good because you have fresh fish all year unlike the trickle you get in Ohio until November/Dec. and then the push in the spring.

Thanks,
Rick

(in reply to Happy Guy)

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