What Happens To Soft Plastic Eaten

[MIbassyaker]

1 hour ago, TriStateBassin106 said:

I've never had any bass caught with soft plastics inside them, I've caught bass with holes in their jaw from other fishermen catching them, most of the time you'll see a bluegill tail down their throat or they're spit out the remains of a crawdad but I have never seen a senko stuck in a bass's mouth. 

that must be a pond management issue, the bass simply aren't getting enough food via baitfish, I fish a very pressured pond nearby my house that I'm always getting snagged on others line and rigs but the bass are always chubby and thick. I've only caught one "thin" bass there and it was a male during the spawn. 

 

If you catch one, you'll know it,  the signs are pretty clear -- it will look deformed in a particular way: big head, no girth, caved-in belly. It is not always that the bass have plastics coming out of their mouths...it is that they are starving from plastics in their stomachs blocking food. Ironically, they don't look full...in fact, they may have already, before you caught them, thrown up the last few baitfish or craws they tried to eat because their stomachs were blocked.

 

Here's a smallmouth that should have been well over 3lbs, and was more like 1-2. Caught at a moderately-popular riverside park. Notice how the belly is caved-in slightly:

.

 

This fish's belly was so skinny it looked knife-edged.  I can't confirm it, but I bet if I cut it open, I would have found a plastic bait or two in its gut. Now look at this one, almost literally the next cast: shorter but heavier, and the belly while not stuffed, at least bulges a bit:

 

 

Of course, any skinny fish you catch may be skinny for many reasons -- it just spawned, or it's old and worn out, or hasn't eaten much recently...you don't know for sure that it's caused by plastics until you actually gut the fish, open the stomach, and check. But enough people have examined the stomachs of bass with characteristics like the first one that we can expect that's often what's going on.

 

EDIT: good article on-site about this:

https://www.bassresource.com/fish_biology/skinny-fish.html
 

 

 

 

[Jermination]

9 hours ago, TriStateBassin106 said:

I've never had any bass caught with soft plastics inside them, I've caught bass with holes in their jaw from other fishermen catching them, most of the time you'll see a bluegill tail down their throat or they're spit out the remains of a crawdad but I have never seen a senko stuck in a bass's mouth. 

that must be a pond management issue, the bass simply aren't getting enough food via baitfish, I fish a very pressured pond nearby my house that I'm always getting snagged on others line and rigs but the bass are always chubby and thick. I've only caught one "thin" bass there and it was a male during the spawn. 

this isnt from a pond man, its from fort loudon lake on the tennessee river. after the classic was here earlier this year all of east tennessee has turned into bass fisherman and i dont know that there is a fish in the lake that hasnt seen lures this year

7 hours ago, MIbassyaker said:

 

If you catch one, you'll know it,  the signs are pretty clear -- it will look deformed in a particular way: big head, no girth, caved-in belly. It is not always that the bass have plastics coming out of their mouths...it is that they are starving from plastics in their stomachs blocking food. Ironically, they don't look full...in fact, they may have already, before you caught them, thrown up the last few baitfish or craws they tried to eat because their stomachs were blocked.

 

Here's a smallmouth that should have been well over 3lbs, and was more like 1-2. Caught at a moderately-popular riverside park. Notice how the belly is caved-in slightly:

.

 

This fish's belly was so skinny it looked knife-edged.  I can't confirm it, but I bet if I cut it open, I would have found a plastic bait or two in its gut. Now look at this one, almost literally the next cast: shorter but heavier, and the belly while not stuffed, at least bulges a bit:

 

 

Of course, any skinny fish you catch may be skinny for many reasons -- it just spawned, or it's old and worn out, or hasn't eaten much recently...you don't know for sure that it's caused by plastics until you actually gut the fish, open the stomach, and check. But enough people have examined the stomachs of bass with characteristics like the first one that we can expect that's often what's going on.

 

EDIT: good article on-site about this:

https://www.bassresource.com/fish_biology/skinny-fish.html
 

 

 

 

yep--just like the pics i posted earlier. the fish's head are the size of a 3 1/2 but they have zero weight. they are really flabby and just look very unhealthy. Anytime i've ever caught one like this they are always out of the highest pressured lake in my area, fort loudon

[Troy85]

Never caught a bass with a soft plastic, but I did catch one with a 1/4oz jighead in its stomach.  Jighead appeared to have been in there quite some time, as it was rusted to the point where the eye of the jig was almost completely rusted away.  Fish seemed perfectly healthy, had a stomach full of shad in addition to the jighead.

[Shimano_1]

I'm sure it's not healthy for the bass. I caught one a cple years ago with about half of a senko hanging out of its behind.  I pulled it out and told my dad it was one time the fish probably was happy to be caught.  I do like others have said and dont throw any line or lures in the water and I try to pay attention when fishing plastics so they dont completely swallow it before I hook em. 

[Glenn]

As always, BassResource has an article about that too!  https://www.bassresource.com/fish_biology/skinny-fish.html

 

Yup, we have the stuff nobody else bothers to talk about because *gasp!* it might upset a sponsor! (cue "serious" music. LOL)

[txchaser]

I wonder a bit about 6" and 7" senkos and whether they'll fit out the out-door. 

[punch]

I've caught several largemouth over the years that "spit up" old senkos & creature baits when I get them in the boat. I had one that had a massively swelled 5" senko T boned in it's throat one time. I got it out pretty easily but it looked like it's been in there for a while. These fish were still fat and healthy looking and obviously eating (because I caught them).

Fish definitely either die, or have a much harder life after eating one of our plastics. No question about that. All we can do is try to dispose of plastics properly AND use some kind of wacky rigging technique like O rings or tube rings when we senko fish to keep the bait on the line. 

 

Another alternative is to fish like KVD and only use hardbaits! haha

[Boomstick]

I once saw a video of a bass that got caught and was pooping out a senko, so that can happen but I am not sure what normally happens.