Who dunnit?

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Silent Ocelot

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While plundering for ye stockers at a local creek in SEPA I hit a brown that had way more power than it should have (fish was around 12 inches) (must of thought it was a Saucon wild brown). Fish shot upstream like a steelhead, turned, and blasted downstream into a slow pool. I started working it back up the hole and it started doing some rolls. I knew it was foul-hooked in one of the fins (side fins) (I usually get em' in the tail). When I eventually got the fish into my net I noticed it had two puncture wounds on the top of the fish. These holes were about 6mm in diameter and were spaced around an inch apart. Any idea what caused this? I don't think it was a snake as a snake would have to be pretty large to have a bite profile like that. I have seen some six foot snakes hanging around this creek though. The wounds looked fresh and were red. I just hope I didn't inadvertently get this fish bit. It seemed like it really did not want to be in the area I caught it in and I did catch it near a bank. I just wanna know who the culprit was out of curiosity, and yes, I should have checked the belly and sides of the fish for other bite marks. I should have taken pics but was more concerned about just getting the fish back into the water.
 
Green Backed Heron?? Kingfisher??
got a couple of stabs in it mayby?
 
Was thinking that. Usually puncture wounds are from herons/kingfisher etc

That there were 2, makes me think it may have been talon marks from eagle or osprey.
 
I'm with Joe, especially if you consider SEPA is home to the Quakertown Swamp, the home to what may be the largest Great Blue Heron rookery in eastern Pennsylvania.

Even though I also see and hear Kingfishers all the time, there isn't a stream that I fish in the area where I don't see a Great Blue fishin'...
 
My money's on a big heron. Eagles are slashers, not gougers, and kingfishers/small herons would leave the spike-marks pretty close together. If a mammal damages a fish like that, they will follow up until they catch and eat it (otter, mink, etc).
 
Thanks for the rapid responses guys! I'm going with heron as I have seen quite a few of them about but I have not seen any at the creek I am fishing (there's definitely Canadian geese though!). I am sure there are herons there. I see quite a few herons on the Brandywine. I suspect that trout got jabbed while hanging in the slow water. The trout in this part of the creek seem to have now retreated to the comfort of the overhanging bank.
 
I tossed a sunfish to a heron one day on the Wissahickon. It grabbed the fish and flipped it's head back and swallowed it.
You be surprised what a snake can swallow.
P5240271 3

I'd rule out a snake. Water snakes in PA are non-venomous, no fangs. The only venomous snake in the area would be a Copperhead. I don't think they do much hunting in water.
 
One would think so. In his defense I told him to kill it as it is an abomination. I would have done the same if I were in his shoes, but thankfully I never catch these things.
 
Silent Ocelot said:
One would think so. In his defense I told him to kill it as it is an abomination. I would have done the same if I were in his shoes, but thankfully I never catch these things.
Click to expand...

If purist fishermen on PAFF targeted nothing but "Palominos" they would eventually quit fishing or switch to other easier species...

Maybe that explains the disdain... :p

Speaking for myself, only once in my life have I ever managed to catch a TARGETED golden rainbow and that was on an Opening Day a LONG time ago fishing a marabou crappie jig on spinning tackle.

The few other times I've run into them with a fly rod and made a cast or three they ignore every thing I tossed.

Now I just throw rocks at them... ;)
 
I agree, they are hard to catch. I think it's because everyone targets them due to their high visibility. What I don't understand is how they don't get eaten up by predators.

I just think they don't look good in the environment, hence my disdain. You can tell something like a golden rainbow would never occur naturally.

I have caught maybe two in my lifetime on trout magnets using, and I have to come clean, spin gear (this was before I reformed myself).

My fishing partner constantly complains about them never biting (he is impatient though). Maybe they've become so inbred that they no longer posses the ability to eat. I am quite surprised that @Vgiorgi was able to not only get one but also out-fish me (he was a mess before we had our chat). Beginner's luck?

Rocks are nice, but I may resort to M80s now...
 
I was trying to use dry flies and now that I have the nymph game down I can only get better from this point forward. The palomino took a size 14 frenchie
 
Vgiorgi said:
I was trying to use dry flies and now that I have the nymph game down I can only get better from this point forward. The palomino took a size 14 frenchie
Click to expand...
*MY Frenchie haha. Good catch though, how did it taste? Never got to ask you that.
 
We have been calling them tracers for years. Why you may ask? As already alluded to, people see them easily, they are usually of trophy class (>15"), the folks will throw everything in the tackle box at them to no avail, and the folks will fish for that fish for hours vs the typical throwing if a few casts and moving on.

What happens is that their perserverence for the one fish enables them to catch many of the other unseen fish and clean out a hole or riffle leaving the solitary tracer for others to relentlessly pound the water in attempt to catch.

So...my small group of friends
dispatch tracers upon landing, thus saving other fish the same fate.

We dont catch many and we dont target them. Most are caught unwittingly. Dont think any of us caught one on a dry fly. I can attest to one on a wet fly (soft hackle hares ear i believe) and one on an pink egg pattern. My friends caught them on flashy streamers, wet flies and egg patterns.

The are fussy little devils.
 
www.themeateater.com

One Man’s Quest to Spear and Eat Alpine Trout

The pre-sunrise darkness condemned me to my truck. Bored and eager to fish, I picked up the only entertainment in my vicinity, a Wyoming fishing regulations pamphlet. I aimlessly thumbed through pages before stumbling onto a section titled “Underwater Spear Gun Fishing.” The coffee-stained paper...
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