J Wilson Posted February 22, 2009 Report Share Posted February 22, 2009 I fished for some fin clipped speckies last week in a remote lake and noticed that most of the females I caught were spitting eggs. I thought specks spawned in the late fall?. Are these sterile fish trying to waste out the eggs?. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kickingfrog Posted February 22, 2009 Report Share Posted February 22, 2009 (edited) Could be some eggs that didn't get "laid", could be a fish that didn't spawn. Sterile fish are not supposed to produce sperm or eggs, hence they usually grow bigger, faster. Edited February 22, 2009 by kickingfrog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greencoachdog Posted February 22, 2009 Report Share Posted February 22, 2009 Could be some eggs that didn't get "laid", could be a fish that didn't spawn. Sterile fish are not supposed to produce sperm or eggs, hence they usually grow bigger, faster. What else are you going to do besides eat if you can't reproduce??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kickingfrog Posted February 22, 2009 Report Share Posted February 22, 2009 What else are you going to do besides eat if you can't reproduce??? Fish!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brkygetr Posted February 22, 2009 Report Share Posted February 22, 2009 Sterile fish are not supposed to produce sperm or eggs, hence they usually grow bigger, faster. I thought they still go through the cycle, and produce both sperm and eggs. They are just sterile and do not develop. I know I have got stocked brookies that are packed with either/or. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J Wilson Posted February 23, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2009 I thought they still go through the cycle, and produce both sperm and eggs. They are just sterile and do not develop. I know I have got stocked brookies that are packed with either/or. Very interesting. I guess this is common for this time of year?. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kickingfrog Posted February 23, 2009 Report Share Posted February 23, 2009 (edited) True sterile fish do not produce eggs or sperm. There may be the a few eggs or a cc or two of sperm in a few of a "batch", that's why it can be a crap shoot when these fish are added to a body of water. Whether or not this particular lake had sterile fish added to it. Stocked fish are not always sterile (actualy rarely) but the waters they are being added to for one or a dozen reasons won't support natural regeneration. Edited February 23, 2009 by kickingfrog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northhunter Posted February 23, 2009 Report Share Posted February 23, 2009 If they're developing eggs they are not sterile. As I understand it the eggs get re-absorbed if the fish doesn't spawn. How long that takes I have no idea. I've never caught brookies through the ice that had eggs?? Maybe our stocked fish release them??? I really don't know. Stocked fish normally don't reproduce, not because they can't but because with each generation that is reared in a hatchery they lose their ability to do what natural fish do so well. They get domesticated. Even stocked splake have been documented to reproduce, although it's rare. They can do funny things with fish inside. They can play with the photoperiod to condition rainbows to be either spring or fall spawners. The fish that truly can't reproduce because they don't produce milt or eggs get shocked with warm water when they are still fertilized eggs. It adds a 3rd set of chromosomes. "Triploids" are generally kept to fish farms. The record rainbow caught in the north channel (?) was an escaped triploid, as are the fish being caught by the two brothers out west (1 or more line class records - huge fish). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinker Posted February 23, 2009 Report Share Posted February 23, 2009 I've never caught a brookie with spawn in it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ThisPlaceSucks Posted February 23, 2009 Report Share Posted February 23, 2009 i've heard that some stocked lakes do not actually possess the necessary spawning habitat to host sustainable populations but are stocked on a strictly put and take basis. perhaps this is the case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danc Posted February 23, 2009 Report Share Posted February 23, 2009 i've heard that some stocked lakes do not actually possess the necessary spawning habitat to host sustainable populations but are stocked on a strictly put and take basis. perhaps this is the case. There's dozens of lakes up here that fit that description. But they don't clip the fins because of that. There's simply no need to identify the year class of non reproducing fish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Bacon Posted February 23, 2009 Report Share Posted February 23, 2009 My guess is that it is a "put & take" lake that does not have suitable spawning habitat. The trout are capable of reproducing but didn't spawn in the fall because they could not find a suitable spawing area. Thus they still had their eggs in the winter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J Wilson Posted February 23, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2009 The roe felt really mushy, not firm like river run salmonids. Maybe the fish was in the process of re-absorbing the eggs into it's body as the fish wasn't exactly fat full of roe. I'm sure it's common, I caught 2 that day that were shooting eggs as soon as they came from the hole. I also saw some eggs around another previously cut hole. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abberz Posted February 24, 2009 Report Share Posted February 24, 2009 Could be some eggs that didn't get "laid", could be a fish that didn't spawn. Sterile fish are not supposed to produce sperm or eggs, hence they usually grow bigger, faster. I've caught splake full of eggs......probably just didnt spawn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walleyejigger Posted February 24, 2009 Report Share Posted February 24, 2009 some stocked lakes around here are originally good speck lakes that were over fished, they were stocked because they were classic habitat lakes for them, which means there are probably some natural fish still in them,(not sure if ur lake is such) clipped fins aren't necessarily an indicator of a stocked fish Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
outdoorguy61 Posted February 24, 2009 Report Share Posted February 24, 2009 Some stocked trout that have been zapped in some fashion as an egg, develop as triploids. These beasts grow large but sadly cannot reproduce making them a questionable addition to any fishery that is still capeable of having native stocks. These are very popular in British Columbia, with a lot of short term support, given the life cycle and no chance of developing self sustaining fisherys in the hope of developing trophy style lakes. Just a tidbit. outdoorguy61 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solopaddler Posted February 24, 2009 Report Share Posted February 24, 2009 The fish you caught weren't sterile. Northunter and Dr. Salvelinus together were right, JohnBacon capped it in a nutshell. In order for Brook trout to spawn in a lake they either need a suitable tributary creek or most commonly upwelling springs. Most stocked trout lakes don't have self sustaining populations because they have no upwelling springs, they're just not viable. As mentioned the fish still produce eggs, they're just not laid and are eventually reabsorbed into their body. Sometimes this takes months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
irishfield Posted February 25, 2009 Report Share Posted February 25, 2009 Many of our Specks from this weekend were full of eggs...that and crayfish! lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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