Does corn kill trout?

[Riverwhy]

No such luck with the corn being an effective way to remove the trout from my smallmouth streams.

[ozark trout fisher]

I've heard so many conflicting things on whether corn kills trout that it makes my head spin.

I have zero problem with using canned corn/powerbait/marshmellow's or anything else colloquially referred to as "grocery store bait." But unless you're really good at setting the hook quickly, it should probably be in a "get in, get your limit with the first four you catch, and get out" scenario. Nothing wrong with that kind of trout fishing in the right setting. I will say that (having spent a good deal of time bait fishing in the past) C&R with corn and other similar stuff would be a pretty high mortality game, digestion problems or not.

[fishinwrench]

If trout are stupid enough to eat something that will kill them, well....they are beyond any help we can offer them.

[MOPanfisher]

I believe the original post had data from a study of fish fed strictly corn and those fed pellets. The difference was in the growth rate, not life or death. Very little whole kernal corn is fed to farm animals, to difficult to digest, cracked, rolled, ground etc. works much better and is more effecient. Catching tround on corn I suspect there is a higher percentage of deep hooked fish, much like there is with worms etc., but I don't think it is suficiently high to be a statistically noticeable cause of mortality.

[jdmidwest]

Have you ever been to Mexico?

On a serious note, chickens, pork, and beef eat corn by the ton every day.

Yep. I used to pass the time on the farm during the day shooting blackbirds picking the corn out of the turds of the above with an ole Crosman pellet gun.

I always laugh when someone chooses chicken over other types of meat. I pass along the fact that our free range chickens on the farm picked corn out of the hog turds, along with the flies that land on them. Chickens are just nasty animals.

[jdmidwest]

I believe the original post had data from a study of fish fed strictly corn and those fed pellets. The difference was in the growth rate, not life or death. Very little whole kernal corn is fed to farm animals, to difficult to digest, cracked, rolled, ground etc. works much better and is more effecient. Catching tround on corn I suspect there is a higher percentage of deep hooked fish, much like there is with worms etc., but I don't think it is suficiently high to be a statistically noticeable cause of mortality.

It is not the mortality, it is the lack of nutrition or digestability in the corn that is the issue. They gorge themselves on it and starve. Why trout are attracted to corn amazes me. The only thing I can figure is it "may" look like a egg to them. They will gorge themselves on an egg, but it is loaded with protein. Trout are meat eaters, not veggie tarians.

[joeD]

Trout are fish with very small "brains." Apparently, they'll eat what we throw at 'em. My lure has treble hooks and plastic.

Have never gotten around to asking them why they hit it.

Then again, we love to watch "Keeping Up With The Kardashians."

Who knows ?

[Quillback]

Then again, we love to watch "Keeping Up With The Kardashians."

Speak for yourself.

[Chief Grey Bear]

Ha. True. Authentic Corn tortillas are fantastic.

And the corn fed farm animals is true as well...but even they have additional foods and supplements fed to them. Soybeans, grasses and hays, grains, mineral blocks, etc...

Absolutely. Corn is a filler like fescue.

[Phil Lilley]

What about the salt in some canned corn? Couldn't be good for them.

Corn works... for both chumming and catching. We just chose not to carry it at our shop.