05-21-2019, 10:18 PM
[quote SkunkedAgain]
Don't know if the bows eat chub minnows, but they sure do eat perch... I caught an 18"er at Hyrum last winter that had a belly full of 5-6" perch... BTW he didn't look like a hatchery pet, it looked more like a football... So bows will eat fish too.... Later J
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Rainbows of the right strain and in the right environment will absolutely prey on baitfish (or juvenile gamefish/panfish). Studies on Scofield rainbows however have shown that they prey on fish less than 1% of the time, which puts them in direct competition with the Chubs for the zooplankton and macroinvertebrate menus.
According to the USU report, rainbows sometimes suffer from overcrowding of like-minded predators. In the case of Scofield, there were (at the time of the report) Cutthroats and Tiger Trout feeding heavily on chubs. And now you've got Tiger Muskies and (possibly) Wipers also competing for the same forage. Thus, the rainbows zero in on the Daphnia and Chironomids for their nourishment.
The Cutthroats by the way are the piscivorous champions of Scofield. It is amazing how much of their diet is made up of Chubs.
Anyone can find the report here... interesting stuff and quite in-depth: http://www.usu.edu/fel/research/scofield...il2014.pdf
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Don't know if the bows eat chub minnows, but they sure do eat perch... I caught an 18"er at Hyrum last winter that had a belly full of 5-6" perch... BTW he didn't look like a hatchery pet, it looked more like a football... So bows will eat fish too.... Later J
[/quote]
Rainbows of the right strain and in the right environment will absolutely prey on baitfish (or juvenile gamefish/panfish). Studies on Scofield rainbows however have shown that they prey on fish less than 1% of the time, which puts them in direct competition with the Chubs for the zooplankton and macroinvertebrate menus.
According to the USU report, rainbows sometimes suffer from overcrowding of like-minded predators. In the case of Scofield, there were (at the time of the report) Cutthroats and Tiger Trout feeding heavily on chubs. And now you've got Tiger Muskies and (possibly) Wipers also competing for the same forage. Thus, the rainbows zero in on the Daphnia and Chironomids for their nourishment.
The Cutthroats by the way are the piscivorous champions of Scofield. It is amazing how much of their diet is made up of Chubs.
Anyone can find the report here... interesting stuff and quite in-depth: http://www.usu.edu/fel/research/scofield...il2014.pdf
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