Rocks in Lakers?

[fishgutz77]

This is the third time I have cleaned lakers for smoking and have seen small rocks in the bellies over the years. Is this just part of the feeding frenzy and they get sucked up? I've seen salad in northerns and walleyes from eating baitfish in heavy cover but what is this? Does anyone else ever see this?

[chris63]

Where are the Lakers from?I know in the summer they really slam the gravel and sand to churn up worms and insects from the bottom.c63

[fishgutz77]

The ones that have had rocks are from Superior, Big Trout and Burntside. I wonder if they pick them up when they try to suck bait fish or crayfish out of the rocks.

[slipperybob]

I've gut trout with a piece of a twigs in their belly. Must have mistaken that for a nice juicy worm or crustacean. I do find sand grains or pebbles too in fish belly's. Maybe they're like birds and it helps them to digest their food?

[Scott M]

I too have seen rocks in Laker stomachs. I had the opportunity to cut open a lot of Superior fish this summer and quite a few had some rocks.

My best guess is this. Since lakers are traditionally an open water feeder, they are pretty well evolved to nail a bait on the move, and swallow it whole. They won't reposition a bait like some species, and they won't mouth a bait if they pull it off the bottom like a bass, blowing out any non-food items they pick up. This characteristic really doesn't lead to a lot of rocks in the stomach in the summer I would guess, but in the winter its a different story. The lakes aren't stratified so prey items can move around the bottom. You will often graph a lot of fish on the bottom in the winter. When the lakers are foraging in the winter, they are probably sucking a lot of baits off the bottom and gobbling up some rocks with it. Also know that sculpin and goby can be a large part of some lakers' diets. Those are fish that they will pull off the bottom year round.

So it seems there will always be an occasional fish with rocks in the stomach, winter or summer.

[rockman]

A guy I fished by at the Brainerd contest, who is from Michigan,told me about lakers taken from Superior with rocks in the stomach.He did find a stone while checking the stomach contents of a fish to find out what the laker(s) were feeding on.

[stick]

I have always been under the understanding that lakers will swim through large clouds of baitfish and slap and slash through the bait by whacking them (dead) with their tail and biting them and the dead ones sink to the bottom and they later go back and pick through them on the bottom. We used to catch lots on LOW out of Sioux Narrows with a cisco sitting on bottom based on this theory.

[fishgutz77]

the fish from Burntside were full of smelt, the fish from superior looked like herring maybe and the fish from big trout had what looked to be perch. I cut open just about all my fish to see what they are eating helps me pattern. I just dont have any rock lures. thanks for the info guys and I'll keep looking for odd stuff bet you guys will too.