Can anyone shed some light as to what this trout was up to?

Last night i took a boat out on my local fishery at about 8pm,nothing much was moving but after about half an hour i noticed something on the surface about 50 yards infront of the boat.On closer inspection this movement did indeed turn out to be a trout but its movements were odd to say the least.

The fish was staying on the surface with its tail partially out of the water and its head down.I managed to quietly manouver the boat into position and got the net under the fish,once i lifted the net the fish went berserk and when i examined it in the boat it was a perfectly healthy looking over wintered rainbow of about two and a half pounds.I returned the fish and it instantly swam strongly away from the boat.


I have never seen a healthy fish perform like this (as i said the fish looked ok) so what the heck was it up to,it seemed to be in a dazed state just prior to me putting the net under it.The top layer of water is very warm at the minute could that be something to do with it?

My guess would be that it had not long been returned after some careless handling or a long fight.

google 'whirling disease'

i dont think that would be the cause zoomer, as it causes skeletal deformations and he said the fish appeared to be healthy and swam off strong.

Tom

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I'm an angler not a fishmonger

Quo Fas Et Gloria Ducunt

You should hear the same story from the trout's point on view:
There's nowt so queer as folk.

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Plusnet/Madasafish > Liars to the internet community

Definitely NOT Whirling Disease - I saw plenty of that in my time trout farming and it only affects small fish and they spin rapidly as if chasing their tails.
I have seen sick or injured fish behave in a similar manner to that which you describe. It could have had a bang while being netted in a boat and that might have been a temporary thing and you 'brought it to its senses' by netting it.
Several illnesses could affect the swim bladder that would make it difficult to swim the right way up - or the balancing system in the inner ear could be affected that would make it disorientated and swim awkwardly. In these cases the fish might swim away strongly but after a few minutes it would most likely end up on the surface again.

Keith

You have missed april the 1st mate by a couple of months..

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[SIZE="4"]BRITISH BY BIRTH , SCOTTISH BY THE GRACE OF GOD..[/SIZE]

You know, i saw a fish doing this today! Thought it was strange! You think there could be other things which might make a fish do that? (other than madness!, it looked like a dog chasing it's tail!)

done a bit of research on whirling, pretty unlikely its that, maybe like humans you get the odd dafty

Could it just be sleeping? I have marine fish and two float at the surface when sleeping.