11 Mile Pike Stomach Contents.....

[CavScout]

So yesterday while filleting my catch from Sunday I cut open the bulging gut on the 22" Northern that I caught and was surprised beyond belief. So much that I thought I would see what you guys thought about it.    The pike's gut was packed with nightcrawlers in various stages of digestion. Two of them were damn near fishable and were in the 6-7in range.    So my question is...... do you think he is finding these crawlers as natural forage.... or do you think that he had just been robbing peoples fishing rigs.  For me the robbing of fishing rigs is more believeable except that I don't know many guys(or any) who use nightcrawlers through the ice and the fact that they were in various stages of digestion suggests a more long term feeding pattern in oppose to a one time gorgeing.   

What are your guy's thoughts and opinions on the matter?

[Malty Falcon]

I have found power bait in two different trout stomachs at Antero before.  But nightcrawlers thru the ice is pretty unusual, I agree.  After sampling over a hundred trout stomachs, I've never seen big nightcrawlers.  I imagine that pike had been hanging around the bait shop! 

[MTNBOYJD]

Thought I'd give my opinion on the subject. I'm new to this sight but, not new to 11 mile.
My wife and I spend a lot of time there since we live 12 mi. away. I always thought pike
didn't like nightcrawlers, until I caught a 38" pike on one last October. We've watched them through the ice many times and they showed no interest. You never know. I think why this
guy had a stomach full is probably because someone lost a box of crawlers down the hole
and he helped himself to a free lunch. We,ve had good luck on crawlers once in a while, just
depends what mood there in. That place changes daily. We'll try our luck tomorrow.

[neveruminda]

last week I watched a guy dump his frozen crawlers down his hole before leaving...

[_colorado]

I agree with mtnboyjd - pike are scavengers and opportunistic.  Aqautic annelids do exist in rivers but cannot to be mistaken with earthworms or "Canadian" crawlers.  My guess would be what neveruminda said: a big blob of crawlers were dropped down the hole and that pike found them. 

Various stages of digestion?  Maybe the pike chewed some and swallowed others?  A biology major needs to chime in on that.

[CavScout]

Well that makes perfect sense to me. And would explain a lot. Was still a new one on me.

[coboy]

I've found 8" trout in them but never crawlers. I can't imagine they would be cruising around under the ice in water colder than 40 degrees. If anyone cares I just found out this year that our
common night crawler is NOT a native North American species. It was brought over by the Europeans hundreds of years ago. It is considered an invasive species and actually due to the way it
aerates the soil it is actually detrimental to native ground cover in the North East which was much different in the forests before night crawlers arrived. Just a little useless trivia. Tight lines.

[SLAYERFISH]

Chumming. Happens all the time. I find corn in the bellys often-