A Look Inside: The Belly Of The Beast - The Fisherman

A Look Inside: The Belly Of The Beast

author
The author credits identifying clues in the stomach contents of other fish for putting big fluke on his boat.

Looking for an edge? Consider taking a closer look at stomach contents.

Every angler is looking for an edge, something to tip the odds further in their favor, I say, ‘steal a page from fly fishermen’s book’ and start looking at stomach contents. It’s happened to all of us, you open the cooler and find that one of the fish inside has regurgitated copious amounts of something all over the cooler, or sometimes is on the deck or – if you’re particularly unlucky – all over you!

As grisly as it may seem, examining these expulsions may hold the key to a better bite, so look closely before washing them down the scuppers.

Reading The Menu

It should go without saying that knowing what the fish you’re targeting are eating is going to improve your results. This clue will allow you to match size, profile, action and even color. And sometimes it’s even simpler than studying stomach contents, sometimes all you need to do is look over the side of the boat! If bait fish are boiling and being pushed to the top such as sand eels or bunker, than the answer is pretty obvious and you can make your lure or bait choices based on what you see. Even squid schools can be seen, at times, literally leaping out of the water to avoid feeding bass and blues.

However, it’s not always that simple. Sometimes the action is 40 to 80 feet under the boat (or even deeper) and while you may have an idea based on sonar returns, it’s often is worth confirming your hypothesis by actually looking at the stomach contents of the first few fish you catch that day… especially if the fishing is slow and you don’t feel like you’re completely dialed in.

Identifying contents is easiest when the prey has just been consumed prior to having been caught, sometimes these freshly-consumed baitfish look as if they could be released back into the water! But if the baitfish has been partially digested, it can become more of a guessing game. Many times, my initial assessment has been wrong, I’ve mistaken mantis shrimp for juvenile lobsters; I’ve assumed butterfish were small scup. Bergals (cunner) can be hard to identify, looking like a generic, darker basic baitfish that will leave you guessing. I can say there is no confusion when you find a full-sized clear nosed skate or legal sized lobsters inside a striped bass; spider crabs are pretty hard to miss, as well. Choosing presentations based on your understanding of what the food source is telling you will give you a definite edge.

lobster
When lobster, crab and other crustaceans are present in the bellies of your catch, that’s a clue that tells you the fish are grubbing on the bottom.

General Rules

Sand Eels – When you find sand eels in your catch, I find that switching to long, thin vertical jigs presented in the lower third of the water column is often the ticket. But small, slender soft plastics, like a Ron-Z will also take a lot of fish. Sand eels can be found anywhere in the water column, but wherever the fish are, present them with something that’s similar in size and silhouette to what you now know they are eating.

Herring & Mackerel – These larger baitfish tend to be mid-water swimmers and can be mimicked with either a horizontal and or vertical presentation most often utilizing a lure that has a moderate width with a tight wobble. Think of Flat-Fall Jigs when going vertical, or mid-sized swimming plugs like a Hydro Minnow when casting and retrieving. I have found that color combinations comprised of pink, purple and silver look like a good match in the water and catch a lot fish when these baits are present.

Bunker (Pogies) – These tightly-schooling baitfish are most easily copied by a wide-bodied presentation that swims with a slower wobble. When they are near the surface, larger, slower surface plugs, like the Doc, a large surface metal lip or glidebait will draw lots of attention. In recent years the big flutter spoons have proven their value around the bunker schools and can be fished from the sea floor to just below the surface.

Squid – Just about every ocean predator eats squid and they can be found anywhere from the sea floor to the surface. Squid are more likely to be deep during the day and mid-column at night, if you find them on the surface, there’s typically some type of gamefish pushing them. When you find squid on top during the day, all the same plugs and lures that work with bunker will typically catch fish, just adjust your sizes to match the squid the fish are feeding on. When the squid are deep, jigging is the best bet; anything from a bucktail to a diamond jig to some of the high-tech slow pitch and butterfly jigs will work well. In the daytime I stick with shades of white and pink, after dark I like black and purple.

Honing Your Approach

Ok, you’ve caught a few fish and you’ve been able to determine what they are eating either through baits spit up by landed fish or by examining the stomach contents of a harvested fish. The next part of the equation is deciphering what that means, choosing the correct lure and deploying it in the correct part of the water column.

The first thing I do when examining the stomach contents of a fish is try to determine whether or not I’m looking at all one species. If the contents are made up of the same species of baitfish then you know the fish are likely to be dialed in on that bait and may not be willing to strike baits that don’t mimic what they’re eating. There’s no sense in fishing wide, flat spoons if the bait of choice happens to be sand eels! A better move might be to deploy a Diamond Jig or a slender soft plastic. I find being aware of stomach contents to be equally helpful with bottom dwelling species, like sea bass and cod as I do with striped bass and bluefish.

bass
This keeper striped bass was absolutely packed with sand eels, telling the author to bring his slender jigs on his trip the following day.

Three From The Bottom

When fishing for fluke I am especially focused on determining what they are eating; whether its squid, sand eels, or the more typical mix of crabs, scup, cunners, etc., I look to these clues to guide my approach. If the fish are on and sand eels I will switch to drifting mylar skirted blade baits, if they’re eating squid, it’s all about squid strips and Gulp. When the fish are grubbing for a mix of baits, I’m going with bucktails to make some commotion on the bottom. In general, I consider fair quantities of crab and cunners inside any species check to indicate that the fish are opportunistically grubbing and focused on ground level movement. While any deep presentation may work in this scenario, I tend to favor bait – sea clams or squid typically work well, keep it deep and slow for best results. And if nothing else, take the clue from the fish, even though I love to jig, when I see crabs in their bellies, I know it’s not a jigging scenario.

My approach is similar for sea bass. Yes, most times sea bass hit any and all presentations, but there are certainly days when they are not so cooperative. Here again, if you can figure what they’re eating, you can often turn on the bite. When they’re on sand eels for example, the Po-Jee from Point Jude Lures fished a few feet off the bottom will often catch a lot more fish than another bait fished down along the bottom. Codfish are another example, if the first few fish have crabs in their bellies, I stick to clams or soft baits fished on the bottom. But if I find herring or other finfish, I’m going to jig and probably add a mylar teaser.

Added Value

PELAGICS TOO
There was even a period last summer in my home state of Rhode Island when it seemed as if the giant tuna were showing less interested in live bluefish (which had been the clear bait of choice for the past several years). The fish seemed to be much more interested in smaller live baits like mackerel and, the stomach contents proved that out, the fish were all full of mackerel!

If you know you’ll be fishing several days in a row or several times in a week, this information can become even more valuable. Keeping an eye on what they’re eating, will not only inform your presentations throughout the span of your fishing excursions, but may also offer clues for how you can adapt if the bite starts to go quiet. Putting in several days will always allow you to dial in your gear and presentation better than you can just making one, isolated trip. Either way, whether it’s a single trip for only a few ours or a dedicated fishing vacation, the more you keep an eye on what the fish are eating, the more you can continue to improve your odds of success.

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