When I gutted a Rainbow from my club reservoir today I was surprised to find a partly-digested black rodent in it's gut!

I say 'mouse' but I suppose it's more likely a Water Vole. The front end was mostly mush but two back legs and a shortish tail were definitive evidence of rodent.

My wife screamed until it was bagged and binned so I can't offer any photographic evidence, I'm afraid. It did whiff a bit too!

I've seen video-clips (on here) of New Zealand rainbows being caught on mouse patterns. I've already started studying deer hair mouse patterns, but with a size 10 hook limit it will have to be baby mouse, rather than full sized Vole.

For the record it took one of my "Egg Hog" Sedges, fished static.

SharkeyP

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Often thinks not travel widens,
Stay at home the Trout obliges.

Interesting.....

whereabouts is this reservoir if you dont mind me asking... Just to get an idea of the surrounding environment. It might be the case that if they (water voles or small mice) are quite common, they could have taken to eating them...
Even rats are confident swimmers and i myself have seen one in arlington reservoir swimming towards the bank. When i approached it, thinking it was a snake swimming in the water, it dipped under the surface only to pop up a few meters away.

I wish we had little mice plagues like we see in those videos from new zealand. It would make for some very exiting fishing..

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'' if at first you don't succeed........then skydiving is not for you....

My uncle caught a nice brownie one day of about a pound. as he was playing it I noticed it had a couple of whiskers!!
The whiskers were the legs of a large semi digested frog hanging out of its mouth!!!
Greedy wee bu^^er

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It is in truth not glory,nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting,but for freedom - for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with his life.(Declaration of Arbroath, 1320)

Hi Dayne,
the place is called Lower Ogden Reservoir in Barley, Lancashire, in the 'bare lee' of Pendle Hill, Lancs. Pendle Witch country and all that. It holds a good head of elusive wild browns and is stocked with Rainbows by the club. None have gone in since early July because of the water levels, which have been about twenty foot down. Consequently all the fish in there are switched on to naturals, up to and including small mammals! They are mostly healthy full-tailed fish and full of fight.


Day tickets are available from the log cabin café in the main village car park for £15, two fish then C&R. It's in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and I love it. These pictures are from March when there was still some ice in the mornings. It's an upland reservoir, cooler and windier than most but with plenty of minnows and fry and a lot of caddis, midges, and snails. Terrestrials worthy of imitation include beetles, Heather Flies and Daddies. I've found Shield Bugs inside a fish but never seen one on the water.




SharkeyP

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Often thinks not travel widens,
Stay at home the Trout obliges.

funny thing you mentioned shield bugs and not noticing them on the water. When i visited the lake district a few weeks back i caught a number of rainbows at Watandlath Tarn near Derwent water. One of them i kept for dinner that night and when gutting the fish, it must have had about 10 shield bugs in its stomache..!!

I never even saw one the whole day..!! I wonder where they were coming from..

It looks a beautiful place sharkey, nice dark coloured brown you have there in your pic. Maybe one day i'll give it a visit if im up that part of the world again..

D

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'' if at first you don't succeed........then skydiving is not for you....

Farlows always have a selection of what they are fishing on their front desk. They had all sorts of large terrestrials including mice and frog patterns.

Probably Fulling Mill.

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Carl

http://www.wandlepiscators.net/
http://teiseangling.co.uk/index.htm

TOMORROW THE TRENT COULD BE YOUR FISHERY! When are YOU going to JOIN THE ANGLING TRUST?

Watch this its brilliant,

Fantastic video clip Greenie have you watched the full version and what happens to the mouse?

No but Iv thought about getting the full length DVD here

home

I guessing the little fella got away

Plenty of free samples on youtube