# Surf Trout - Stomachs



## batmaninja (Jul 15, 2010)

Managed to catch a few trout in surf side this weekend. Lots of dinks and all sorts of bait in the water. Trout seemed to be very aggressively feeding as they were hammering my top water. 

I was surprised that when I cleaned the ones we kept that their stomachs were, empty. Nada. Anyone else see this? Just wondering how this could be, I would have thought they would have been gorging themselves on the mullet.


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## the toninator (Jan 19, 2016)

I havent heard this before but someone was mentioning the other day trout will throw up in an effort to dislodge what is stuck in their mouth, in this case the hook. Could be that.


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## Fishin' Soldier (Dec 25, 2007)

I caught 5 on saturday all empty except one. He was full of shrimp.


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## jpdarby2 (Aug 17, 2016)

Out of the 15 fish I cleaned last weekend out of SS only 2 had shrimp in their stomachs, the rest were empty. I thought it strange myself.


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## monkeyman1 (Dec 30, 2007)

On a diet?


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## Coyote B (Jul 31, 2012)

Very common for them to throw up while reeling them in. Sometimes it happens right near you and when they shake, youll see dead shrimp, shad, etc fly out. 

If you dont see it, theres a good chance it happened while you were reeling the fish in.

Thats probably why you didnt see anything in their stomach.


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## chris.m.cook (Jul 14, 2017)

The few we caught last week all coughed up finger mullet on the beach.


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## jlynn33 (Jul 8, 2009)

Caught 2 this past Saturday in the surf and experienced the same thing. Water was loaded with bait. Both trout were males, about 18 inches each. Alternatively caught about 7 decent size sandies, and every one of them was loaded with shrimp and/or finger mullet.


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## lapesca67 (Apr 9, 2008)

We landed a number of good trout on Saturday. Several fish were puking as I landed them...same happened to my son. You will usually see slicks pop up as you are fighting the fish or once they are on the stringer. In fact, if you take a few fish and put them in the live well, they will usually puke in there and leave you with all kinds of goodies.


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## waterspout (May 21, 2004)

them puking is whats called a slick and thats where the melon smell comes from


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

After cleaning a lot of fish, especially white bass, I have noticed that when the fish are biting great, hitting hard, and aggressively that most of their stomachs will be empty. Even when the action is wild with bait flying out of the water and is all around the area. Maybe because the most of the fish caught are the first wave of the school.
If you can stay with the same school long enough then the fish will have full stomachs and barfing!

So if the action just started after a long dry spell of casting, then these guys just started eating and many times the first blows that predator fish deliver to a school of bait is a killing blow, either by biting the bait in two as they rip through them, or stunning them them with body blows. Sometimes they just eat them whole, but the bigger the school the more schooling rules apply. 

That means there is a strategy and the first wave fish are the shock and awe troop.
The first fish caught are the killers that come to break up and damage the school of bait and create chaos, so the whole school of white bass can get their fill. it's just sometimes their is a hook in there! 
The white bass usually attack the bait first and then circle back to eat them. Sometimes in a tight little circle, sometimes over a big area. 
I often position the boat to intercept waves of schools that will cross under the boat and linger in a certain structure. Often many of the fish caught will be the ones in the front of a school. Or a small school doing a whirlwind kind of attack and eat sweep through an area.
When fish are finicky and it takes a lot of finesse to get bit, most of them will be chock full of shad, or have some partially digested food in their stomachs. 
They were just hanging out in a school that I saw on sonar and somehow I/we tricked them into hitting, usually with a quirky trick of some kind in the retrieve or delivery.

The white bass unload a little differently by sometimes crapping when they see the top of the water as you reel them up.
They act a lot like trout, they school in big numbers and get wildly aggressive when the school is triggered to eat. So I bet it's pretty close to the same for them.
Casting in the surf for specs successfully usually means you spotted a trough/point/dip etc... where the trout like to stage an attack, it can differ from day to day/hour to hour where it will be in the surf. Sometimes you just get lucky.


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