In the last week I've seen two occurences at my local fishery which I'd never seen before....and am unlikely to see again.

1) Whilst stalking fish I saw a rainbow of about 2lb heading along the margins at very high speed. When it was opposite me it veered sharply towards the bank and, given the speed it was moving, came right out of the water and ended up near my feet, about six feet up the bank. I got it back into the water and it swam off.
Given the maximum size fish in the water is 6/7lb I can't imagine it was being predated but perhaps someone can explain.

2) Again whilst stalking I came across a fish of similar size sitting stationary in the water about 6" down with it's nose pressed hard against the bank. It could certainly see me but it didn't move.
I waved my arms over it.....nothing!
I put my hands in the water next to it.......nothing!
I eventually took hold of it.......nothing!
Then I turned it round facing away from the shore......and it swam off!

Any info on these events, particularly the latter, would be welcome.

mmmmmmmmmmm........fishy..

Very strange, cant really explain that. I do fing tho that Trout are a little mad as far a fish sanity goes.

In Rutland I have whilst wading come across both Trout and on a seperate occasion a Perch, both times the fish were just lying motionless on the bottom and appeared to be dead, no sign of the gills moving or fins yet when I poked them with my net handle they shot off??

Apparently the reason why fish farmers appear a little rough when they stock trout into the lakes is because if they put them in gently the Trout will often just sit there and die or go into a some kind of trance due to the temperature change and shock of being stocked so they just throw them in the lake and they seem to forget about their shock and swim off none the wiser.!!!

Wild uneducated guesses here:

1. Could the fish have been leaping in an attempt to scratch itself, but misjudged it? You know how fish with parasites on them leap out of the water and slam back into it for relief.

2. I've seen fish do this when they're clearly stressed. In the past it's been hot water, or they've had visible white patches on them. (Fungal infection I think)

Who knows .Our egos dont allow us to see it, but trout are generally pretty dumb

all the best nick

some trout that are transported are sedated for the journey, hence the rude awakening when introduced to the new water. Others are fed and others are delivered with an empty stomach so they start feeding on the local pond life straight away. It all depends on the length of the journey.

perhaps the ones seen just laying still were still in recovery from sedation, and the mad rush behaviour was the waking up bit....

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Sorry? im curious how are they sedated? this is new to me.

the reason they are starved before being delivered is so as they do not get any more stressed than required in the journey as they are in oxyegenated tanks,a box basically ,short or long.Not so as they will feed straight away when introduced.

The description Pondlife has described could be a couple of things and to speculate without seeing it or knowing if it was a newly stocked fish or not would be to put a match a torch paper and could be totally wrong and just be a one off.

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Kevin

Fish are NOT fed for at least a day before transporting for re-stocking. It's to make their journey less stressful, and keep down losses during transportation, and nothing to do with them coming on the feed right away.

lol....it was just an observation in answer to a question....

NOT A STATEMENT OF FACT for that paticular unamed fishery.

sedation of fish can be done using clove oil for transportation.....which will reduce stress

trout delivered with empty stomachs (also quicker to catch on the day)will feed quicker on the pondlife ( flys, puppa etc ) acclimatising quicker than trout with full stomachs of pellets.

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you should always report strange fish behaviour to the fishery..
iv known similar things happen on a tench lake aswell a trout lake
the tench lake ended up being an idiot dumped boxes of rat poison in there.
the other was some type of poisoning to the water aswell, so better safe than sorry mate..

I saw a 3lb sea trout exhibiting similar behaviour in broad daylight over several days in shallow water. It appeared to have a fungal infection (pos UDN at the time) it was spinning around in circles and would swim up to you wellie boot and then clear off and back again. I believe someone may have put it out of its misery and removed it.

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Time is a stream I go fishing in.