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Went fishing yesterday afternoon at Dierkes Lake for a few hours and there was a Rainbow Trout that was probably 20 to 22 inches long and at least 3 or 4 pounds swimming around in circles. about 4 feet deep in the water. Not little circles but probably 40 or 50 feet in diameter. I tried every lure I had, an had them all right in front of the it's mouth multiple times it seemed to have no interest, finally I got him to take a brown rubber curly tailed worm on a jig head, when I got him to the dock I was stupid and tried to lift him out with the line, and he bent my hook and fell off back into the water. He almost immediately went back to swimming in the circles about 4 feet deep, and ignoring everthing I threw his way. I thought for sure he'd dissapear after he was hooked. Has anyone seen behavior like this before? Any ideas why a fish would be acting like this?
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Was he flipping you the bird while he was doing it???[sly]
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I have seen this behavior before. I witnessed it in a high mountain lake in Copper Basin. Same scenario, I threw everything in my tackle box at it to no avail. I thought that maybe the fish was sitting in a small spring seep area or something. Like you, I would be interested to find out more about what this behavior indicates.
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Ha Ha it sure seemed like it... Either that or almost like he was sick and didn't even notice the food
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spawning would be my guess, because it only hit the jig.
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sounds like too big of a cirlce for whirling disease...
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I've witnessed the exact same thing at derkies. Ive never seen the small fish doing it. Its always the larger ones and ive seen it multiple times.
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Probably is whirling disease.
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No, not whirling disease.
Whirling only affects young fish. It affects their nerves and deforms their spine. They turn in very small circles in one spot. The fish is usually very deformed if it survives.
Just a guess .....it might be spawning urge or just plain cruising their area, but might be something else. If you can see them, they can see you and are just spooked enough not to bite.
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One way or the other the fish is damaged. It's not a spawning behavior. Maybe a bad C&R but not normal for a trout.
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