Hi All
had a cracking couple of hours this afternoon in all the sleet and snow! One of the bows i took was full of roe, and not in great condition, bit on the thin side poor lass! Is this right for this time of year, know i took some end of last season but not since (say) early november?
regards
ghg

Had exactly the same at farmoor at the weekend, didn't know whether it was normal or not. J

This is the time for non-Triploid Rainbows to be full of eggs.

Jim

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The Fishermans Friend is the Flirty Fly,Fickle Food for Fleeting Fish.

Hi Jim
what is Triploid Rainbow?

Don't know what it is like where you are but a place I fish they are full to bursting point right up into March .

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Your fish ----> ><((((º> My fish ----> ><(((((((((º>
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Cheers Danny

Co-Founder of S.S.F.D 2010

It's rare to have non triploid fish nowdays.Thank goodness.
Triploid fish
Sexy Trout | Get Hooked

Jim

__________________
The Fishermans Friend is the Flirty Fly,Fickle Food for Fleeting Fish.

Thanks Jim
so triploid fish is sterile from birth.Well,we dont put any kind of rainbows in rivers, some run away from fisheries but they are not spawing here.

In it's native state - ie the USA - the Rainbow is pretty much a February spawner - this is because they tend to do the business after Ice Out when flows aren't subject to further freezing .

It was pretty standard state for overwintered Rainbows in the UK until triploiding reduced it .

I have quite often found reabsorbing eggs in hen fish well into May and June in the past .

It is only nature !

Best wishes

Steve P

Thanks to all for the replies. I took 5 yesterday - 3 hen fish and only this one was in roe. read the article Jim and it seems that perhaps 1 in 10 will still produce eggs - maybe this fish was the 10 perenter - i'll ask about this next time i'm down there. Reason i was confused was that i've taken fish in oct nov that were in roe - see the article suggests that they spawn Jan to March?
Steve - yes it's only nature, i'm enjoying the learning curve from casting to the quarry!
thanks again
ghg

A rather simplistic view. There are spring and autumn spawning strains of native rainbow and steelhead trout.


Another simple link:

Rainbow Trout in the UK

"A firm favourite with the fishermen and because of the Rainbow trout’s faster growth rate it was a favourite with the fish farmer as well. The only fly in the ointment was that two different strains of rainbow trout were used – the Kamloops and the Shasta strain.
Unfortunately these strains became sexually mature at different times of the year. This resulted in fishermen catching ‘coloured’ fish in both late and early season.

The development of egg treatment solved this problem by producing rainbow trout which were all sterile females. This resulted in ‘clean’ fish all year round. As a bonus these trout also grew faster. The introduction of these ‘sexless’ rainbow trout had another benefit for the angler. It opened the door for the abolition of the closed season for rainbow trout. Pressure from both fishery owners and fishermen forced the abolition of the closed season."