A Good Day To Be Alive ...

[dryfly]

Clive, I was taking a closer look at the pic and noticed what looks like something attached to the inside of the right pelvic fin. Old hook? Air bubble? Any idea what it is?

 

Two air bubbles near as I can tell.

[dryfly]

We will probably never know about down eyes equalling stress or non stress. My observation indicates that more stressed fish tend to have down eyes. Now it is really interesting to see artwork of underwater swimming fish. One presumes the artists used photographs as models. And sometimes it is apparent they used down-eye pictures. Swimming trout eyes are straight sideways for sure. Here are some golden trout at the San Diego Sea World and the brood rainbows at the Raven hatchery. Those Raven brood trout as soooooo relaxed it's like they were smoking weed. Hey doooooooood.....

 

[SteveM]

I'm no expert; in fact this thread is the first I've heard of this "downlooking vs. centered pupils" thingy.

Is it possible it just has to do with where the fish is looking? Too simple an explanation, or so simple

it's brilliant? Hmmmm...

[MikeM]

Great picture.

[Harps]

We will probably never know about down eyes equalling stress or non stress. My observation indicates that more stressed fish tend to have down eyes. Now it is really interesting to see artwork of underwater swimming fish. One presumes the artists used photographs as models. And sometimes it is apparent they used down-eye pictures. Swimming trout eyes are straight sideways for sure. Here are some golden trout at the San Diego Sea World and the brood rainbows at the Raven hatchery. Those Raven brood trout as soooooo relaxed it's like they were smoking weed. Hey doooooooood.....

 

But they're in the water. In water a fish will have centred pupils.

 

A bunch of good biologist have suggested that a fish full of piss and vinegar will look down to the water "where they want to go", while a stressed and tired fish won't have the energy to move its pupils down.

 

Definatively stressed fish:

 

Not stressed:

 

Of course like I said... not 100% and no science backing. Just what I've been told and what I've observed.

 

In Water

I'm in a rush, but I'll dig up picks of the same fish in and out of water.

 

Fun, fun

Cheers,

[cdock]

that is a sweet picture!

[Harps]

Then

Same fish, picture data shows that both pictures were taken within one minute (both are recorded as 5:40PM).

Quick capture, very short time out of the water, low temps (water and air).

Eyes centered as fish was put back in the water.

[Harps]

Sorry for the image quality... I thought I had better that showed both.

Cheers,

[OneMoreLastCast]

Good discussion IMO.

I was at a seminar a few years ago where a biologist explained that in a study they did, they found that fish that don't look at the water have only about a 10% chance of survival.

 

He explained that in photographs of fish out of the water, that if the fish did not look down, it was most likely not alive, and if it was alive, it most likely would not make it.

 

The funny thing was that a lot of the people in attendance had earlier been proudly showing off their Fishing albums and he'd borrowed a few of the photos.

He later busted a few of them when they claimed that the fish in the pictures were gently released to fight another day, when in reality, they were bonked and taken home.

The people actually admitted that he was correct in 100% of the ones he accused, about 20 people in total and about 40 pictures.

 

Since then, I myself have had the chance to call a few people out for the same thing.....

 

So, before you post a picture of a fish that hit your freezer, make sure you take the picture before you bonk it.

 

Also, if you notice the fish is not looking down, take a bit more time with it during the release to give it a better chance at survival.