fishyaker Loc: NW Michigan (Lower Peninsula)

OK...I think that we can all agree that fish are cannibalistic. Big fish eat small fish...even if it is their own kind. Well...check this one out!

I was visiting one of my brother in law's over the past 2 days in Port Huron, MI while celebrating a landmark birthday with one of my sisters. Three days ago he was out with friends on his boat, fishing for lake trout in Lower Lake Huron. They boated several nice steelhead, lakers and even one very nice sized Atlantic salmon for their efforts.

The oddity of the excursion was this beautifully proportioned wild native lake trout that weighed in at 13 pounds. They were trolling with a mid sized Silver Streak brand wafer styled spoon (thin) and this "hungry beast" still had an appetite to continue feeding while gorging on what was probably her second cousin from the local fish school. The poor subject of this story, a rather hefty lake trout itself, was about 2/3's the size and the bigger trout in terms of length, and was still busy being absorbed by the underwater digestion process! About 6 inches of the smaller lake trout was sticking out of it's gaping jaws, with the balance being pretty well on the way to being converted into life sustaining "internal protein"! When they netted the big trout, my BIL pulled the small trout out for this snapshot on the deck floor. By guess, they figured the small trout would have weighed in at around 3 pounds. I've seen this happen with pike and muskie, but never such a large imbalance on a laker! "Eyes bigger than stomach" comes to mind!

I have often wondered what a fish would think of itself if only it could view what goes on back beyond the gills. Questions like "I wonder how large I am", or "I wonder if I could eat that" come to mind!

In my opinion...quite amazing! Although this incident was not my own, I thought that folks would find this rather intriguing. Feel free to share some of your similar stories and experiences!

Robert J Samples Loc: Round Rock, Texas

I suppose that fish's philosophy was to get bigger you have to eat big fish! Just Sayin....RJS

charlykilo Loc: Garden Valley Ca

I think it is "if it moves and you can catch it try to eat it".

E.pa.al Loc: Martin's Creek

Thats awesome yaker,thanks for posting!!

saw1 Loc: nor cal Windsor

That one tops my Laker story.
As everyone on here knows we use to live in Lake Tahoe for 20+ years and I use to Mackinac fish there.
My biggest one was bout 19 pounds and 35 inches long. Upon cleaning the fish at home it had a 12 inch Mackinac in it's stomach. Just the skin was dissolved off it. I took some more pics of the big fish and the little fish with a yard stick above the big fish and the big fish was above the little fish with a ruler underneath the little fish.
Was a really cool pic. Wish I knew where all my old pics are. Yeah right, who knows.

Catfish hunter Loc: Riggins idaho (Paradise)

If fish didn’t eat fish my summer fishing job wouldn’t exist. Most are meat eaters and there’s not a lot of meat in a water body that isn’t some sort of fish. I’ve caught a bunch of walleye in my time. Several have had another walleye sticking out of their mouth when I catch them. One I caught was 14 pounds. That’s a big walleye where I’ve fished for them. When I removed the smaller walleye from its mouth it weighed 11 pounds. The fish in its mouth was so big I don’t have a clue how it took my 3” rattle trap and, actually got it hooked down inside its mouth along side of the fish that was already jammed in there. That’s a high speed predator on a mission right their.

saw1 Loc: nor cal Windsor

Wow, that's unbelievable. Some fish are SUCH predators.

Ronniejw Loc: West Point MS

Back 40 years ago was trolling a lake in the mountain area, hooked a 15 inch trout and bringing it in saw the tail of an 8 inch fish hanging out of its mouth. How do these fish get hooked with that in their mouth.

FixorFish Loc: SW Oregon

Read a story a few years back, describing an expedition in China, in search of the huge Taiman trout. The author was after a 50" one as a goal. Along the way to the spot his guide was taking him, they spotted, and stopped to look at, the carcass of a 54" with the carcass of a 39" stuck in its gullet. Perfectly visible, just the bones. I'll look for the magazine and the picture....it was somewhere between awesome and kinda scary.

Reminds me of the time a client's office manager had brought an archaeological artifacts catalog to me, back in my interior designer days of the early '80's, to help her pick out some artwork for the conference room of a law office.
We settled on a piece that was kinda over-budget at $13k (!), but oh so apropos for the firm, as they specialized in corporate law and facilitated takeovers.
It was a fossilized fish about 4' long, with an 18"-20" one inside....and another 6"-7" one inside the 20" one.... embedded on a slab of rock, beautifully mounted and framed !
Like I said, so very appropriate for the venue.
Needless to say, the main partners loved the sentiment expressed. One clapped me on the back during the open house and said "You and Sandra spent our money well, Son... better than any damn painting I could have expected".

Ben Bragg Loc: Dayton Ohio

That was a greedy fish.
Nice story.

ReelFisher

This may be common but it was new to me. I found a dying chain pickerel (11 inches) at the edge of a local lake. It tried to swallow 6 inch bullhead. The little catty got his revenge though by flairing his dorsal and pectoral spikes and impaled the pickerel from the inside with all three.

hacksaw Loc: Pasadena, Texas

I saw a picture of a Salmon eating a bear eating a Salmon....🤣
Hack 🇺🇸🍺🍺

fishyaker Loc: NW Michigan (Lower Peninsula)

Now that's funny! Recycling at it's finest!

hacksaw Loc: Pasadena, Texas

Thanks yak. Made it myself.😬
Hack 🇺🇸🍺🍺

fishyaker Loc: NW Michigan (Lower Peninsula)

I had a hunch on that! You are a master of the mosaic / photo morphing process!