Disturbing post on facebook

[Dave Bailey]

The link below is on the Algonquin Park facebook page, and has me seriously rethinking my use of plastic baits. Worms are the only live bait allowed in provincial parks, and I may switch to them. I think it may be time for artificial baits that are biodegradable, perhaps a gelatin based material.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2222572231/permalink/10159697105577232/

[akaShag]

That is a Facebook link, and I am not a FB user, so I can't see it.  But if it refers to soft plastics being stuck in the stomachs and intestines of fish, I reported on that about fifteen years ago, and have seen many other such posts.  I used to throw away a plastic bait after it was no longer useable, like a grub with no tail, but ever since then I have kept them and disposed of them at home.  Berkley GULP is biodegradable, and there may be other baits that similarly break down in water (or inside fish).

If that is NOT what the article is about, perhaps you could summarize it here for those of us who are not FB folks.  (Yes, really, some people are not on Facebook!  😉)

Doug

 

PS)  Here is a picture from 1 Feb 2007 of a splake from Dog Lake with a plastic worm in it.

Edited January 16, 2022 by akaShag

[akaShag]

[glen]

I caught a bass that had plastic 3” grub sticking out its arse.  It would be nice if they broke down faster.  

[akaShag]

24 minutes ago, glen said:

if they broke down faster.  

I don't think MOST soft plastic baits break down very much at all....

But here is an interesting article that purports to have a bunch of scientific research:

https://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/story/sports/outdoors/fishing/2018/06/14/fishing-lures-plastic-water-environment-littering-patrick-durkin/700695002/

[Fisherman]

The remnants that he pulled out of a lakers stomach in Algonquin Pk. Eaten or discarded synthetic bait.

[Rizzo]

biodegradable certainly the way to go on these things.

[BillM]

Should be mandated to be biodegradable.   

[SuperD]

5 hours ago, BillM said:

Should be mandated to be biodegradable.   

I second this. 

 

[Hack_Fisherman]

2 hours ago, SuperD said:

I second this. 

 

Third, and disintegrate quickly enough so it does not harm or kill the fish, not 10 years like biodegradable garbage bags 

[smitty55]

Here's a study from Carleton University back in 2013 done on Charleston lake. Pretty alarming.  I posted this study back then on a Fish-Hawk thread about discarded plastics and made the mistake of pointing out that it was mostly bass fisherman by far that used plastics. Well some of the bass guys freaked out big time getting on my case saying I didn't like bass fishermen and was picking on them lol. Talk about overly sensitive and easily offended bunch of guys, it was wild the comments they were coming out with. Fortunately the owner and some other members recognized that I was just posting facts and stuck up for me. Dougie I think you were around there back then. There have been plenty of studies since then, there was talk in some states about banning them unless they were biodegradable.

https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/springer-journals/exploring-the-potential-effects-of-lost-or-discarded-soft-plastic-nqTiq8ccjj

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260525998_Exploring_the_Potential_Effects_of_Lost_or_Discarded_Soft_Plastic_Fishing_Lures_on_Fish_and_the_Environment

 

Edited January 17, 2022 by smitty55

[akaShag]

9 hours ago, smitty55 said:

Dougie I think you were around there back then.

Yep.  And yes you touched a nerve, as I recall............😲

[Fisherman]

Every now and then, nerves need touching, usually for the better.

[Garnet]

I will need a little proof.

I see no fish,I don,t see plastic being removed from a trout.

The old instink alarm is going off.

[akaShag]

36 minutes ago, Garnet said:

I will need a little proof.

I see no fish,I don,t see plastic being removed from a trout.

The old instink alarm is going off.

Turn your INSTINK up a notch and look at post #3 on this thread.

[Garnet]

I see a walleye looks in good shape and a petrified plactic worm that has not harmed this fish.

I,ve also seen bass and walleye with plastic bait hanging out ass. Haven't seen a distressed fish.

I'm very carefull to reuse most plastic and despoist of heavily scent plastic.

This still looks like P3TA garbage Post.

[akaShag]

29 minutes ago, Garnet said:

I see a walleye looks in good shape and a petrified plactic worm that has not harmed this fish.

I,ve also seen bass and walleye with plastic bait hanging out ass. Haven't seen a distressed fish.

I'm very carefull to reuse most plastic and despoist of heavily scent plastic.

This still looks like P3TA garbage Post.

Well, if you insist on being obstreperous, WHAT PART OF SPLAKE DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND?  Maybe if you can't tell a splake from a walleye, even with an identification of the fish in question, your not having "seen a distressed fish" tells you that you need to have your eyes checked.  And for your further edification, the bait was not petrified.

We also caught lake trout in Loughborough Lake with big heads and skinny bodies back ten or twelve years ago when the smelt population crashed, that had undigested bits of plastic baits in their stomachs and intestines, and APPARENTLY blocking their digestive tracts.  I am not a fisheries biologist, I am an angler that takes note of unusual things when I catch and/or clean fish.

BTW please note that I EAT fish, quite a bit in fact, and resent your inference that I or the other folks posting on here, are members of the extremist animal rights organization you name.

[Garnet]

And you haven't seen these Loughborough lakers for 10-12 years?

I don't see why lakers can't pass plastic worm.

I do want anglers  to be more aware when they discard plastic.

Out right ban is just stupid and just what the a n t I s want.

Keep asking f or a n t I agenta you will get it.

Edited January 19, 2022 by Garnet

[maker a laker]

Guys,

The research article paints a bleak picture, but involves one lake only. In 50 years of cleaning dozens of lakers, pike, walleyes & bass every year, I have never seen a fish I would call 'distressed' from a plastic bait. Cleaning a 12 pound laker from a stocked lake, I found 2 double tailed 4 inch long plastic grubs, along side a fresh 4 inch rock bass and my ice fishing minnow. Grubs were very old, partially decomposed, but clearly not stopping the fish from feeding & growing. Full length worms blocking the intestine are a different issue. Good luck with designing a plastic bait that does not decompose in warm water during the fishing period, but does breakdown in the stomach acid of  a fish. Caught many a steam speckle with a snelled hook monofilament leader sticking out of its mouth. Give it a gentle tug and find that the steel hook is completely dissolved by the stomach acid and the leader removes issue free. Those fish clearly survived many months with a hook & line impairing feeding activities. The fish are tougher than we think. I have never found a dead fish floating on a lake, with a plastic lure blockage. I have found several dead fish that suffocated when they bridged a spiny backed bait fish across their gills while feeding. Just a bunch of observations on the issue.

[Headhunter]

Filling lakes with microscopic plastic bits seems like a no win to me. Don't we already have enough micro plastics in our oceans to deal with? There has got to be a better way.

HH

[canoecarrier]

I've had splake and brook trout spit the senko halfway up while trying to spit my hook out. The fish that have the rubber baits in their belly's slow/stop growing. For all those who throw their cigarette butts I caught a splake with rotten flesh all around the cig in its belly. Nasty. 

[D-wayne]

Unfortunately I have seen a number of fish that have impacted digestive tracks from plastisol lures (soft plastic)

It is sad to get a lake trout with a large head long body and down to skin and bones. I've also had large mouth and small mouth bass as well as pike and walleye with a soft plastic lure

[wkrp]

Back to the Worms!

[Fisherman]

Maybe they should try the appropriate sized rubber baits on humans for a year or two before they go to market and see what the uptake in Exlax is for that period.

[Canuck]

Thinking about the size of the asses on typical sized bass or trout from years of cleaning them, and I don't think a normal sized plastic worm or grub would be able to pass through the average or smaller fish. 

As for people that say that "I have cleaned fish for years and never cleaned a sick fish with plastic in their guts", well. if most of the fish that ingest plastics die fairly quickly, the less likely you will be catching them to see what they died of.   And I can tell you, if I am going to keep a fish to eat (since there are limits) there is no way I am going to keep a sick looking fish as one of the ones I keep to eat.  Its going back. 

So, basically the worse the issue is for fish, the less likely fishermen will be catching large numbers of them and seeing the "evidence".

Edited January 28, 2022 by Canuck