Rubber baits

[Timber Man]

My question is this- What is the effect on a fish that takes a rubber worm or berkley egg cluster and swallows it and the fish unbuttons on you swallowing the rubber..This can't digest. Just got to thinking would that clog a fish up and kill it????Seems to me if it can't be digested it could have some bad affects on fish..TM

[Deleted User]

Good point TM! Years ago we cut open a Washougal summer steelhead to see what it had been feeding on and you wouldn't believe the amount of crap that fish had in it's stomach! Everything from small rocks to other indigestable junk. I'm wondering if they might regurgitate that stuff. Bill McMillan found a half digested water ouzel in a fish he disected. To those that don't know what I'm talking about a water ouzel is a small darting diving bird. I think the soft plastic might decompose fast too but I'm not sure about that. Good post though.
Stew

[smilesforu]

I have been working on a solution for this problem. It is kind of top secret but one I think I can share .... the key ingredient is a ex-lax scent... Rt has volunteered to eat a package of the tillamook cheese power worms and then try the secret worms for relief. Thanks for stepping up RT images/icons/grin.gif

I am still looking for somebody to follow him around to see the results...any takers?

[SureSet]

TM,

I recently caught a number of 2-3 pound trout with rubber worms, rubber crawdads and rubber grubs stuck in their gut. The fish seemed to be OK, and they also had bugs in there as well, but you can only wonder if the rubber would have eventually taken it's toll. The place I was fishing had allot of Bass fishing pressure and I think these trout were just picking up disgarded scented rubber. I found no hooks, just lot's of rubber, which I would think has to plug them up after enough of it.


SureSet

[Hoosier Daddy]

I would think that a lot of fish would cough them back up. Guess it depends though.

[Master Baiter]

They must get one hell of a belly ache after a while.

[Son of an Okie]

I caught a bluegill and carried it home alive for the aquarium when I lived back in Kansas. Used to play with him with a purple plastic worm. He eventually won and swallowed it. After a few days, it showed up in the bottom of the aquarium in tact minus the purple. Guess he passed it through his system and it didn't seem to hurt him any.

[RiverMan]

Interesting Okie. Is the Bluegill still alive? I have one in a 10 gallon aquarium that is alive and well after 8 yrs!!!

RM

[Son of an Okie]

That was over 20 years ago... he lived quite awhile though. Killed everthing else I tried to put in with him. Finally caught a fungus and died...

[Deleted User]

No prob Marty - I figure I will be able to fire the worm further than you can cast one. images/icons/wink.gif