Grayling Baits

[Santiago]

Enzymes, in this context, are just proteins that catalyse the breakdown of complex molecules into simple molecules that can be readily digested. But I suspect that the grayling are eating the needles for the antifreeze and not as a food source.

[Duckett]

I think they were pulling your leg about the leeches. Grayling don't hibernate like bears, for sure. Probably more like squirrels that only stay in their nests and sleep on the coldest of the coldest days.

Not leeches! Larch needles. From the Larch trees. It's a fact, I was catching the grayling and cooking them on the fire. Their stomachs when opened up were full - jam packed - with larch needles. Great big grayling of two pounds or more.



When the winter comes, the temperatures hit minus thirty, minus forty and more, every day and the rivers freeze. When the Dzud hits it goes to minus fifty and beyond and the horses freeze through, standing up...hundreds of thousands dead in a day but the grayling survive and they do so by 'hibernating' with a stomach full of larch needles keeping their metabolism one notch above dead...

When they say winter is coming, they really mean it; we were lucky to get out just in time:



That line of trees in the background is Tengis Gol, up which the mighty taimen swim to the headwaters to spawn. Great big fish of four, five and they say six feet long. There they meet the shaman, for a festival of virility and strange things happen up there in the taiga forest and the land of the Tsaatan...

I think this may be the single most interesting post I’ve read on TFF. I love this sort of stuff. As for fish using plant anti-freeze, wow!

Phil

[Paul F]

Some good advice there, thank you.

Mate, Opening up 2, 3yr old post will soon get you over 25 post access to the full site, then you can have real fun

Thanks Paul,
I am on leave this week and using the time
to have a look around the forum.

Unsure what you mean by "real fun " but it
sounds interesting. If you mean being able to
sell items. I don't have anything, other than
a reel. Kindly gifted by a member. I am
looking to make a start in the new year,
after a thirty odd year absence from angling.
Kind regards,
Phil.

Sorry Phil i had not answered your pm asking the same question nothing personal, i just was pointing out when you post 25+ you open up more access on the forum.

Which means you get to buy, or sell, and the fun part, you get to read personal fishing journals where you can read great reports on our fishing exploits with some stunning tackle.

Chill & Enjoy

[Tengisgol]

Enzymes, in this context, are just proteins that catalyse the breakdown of complex molecules into simple molecules that can be readily digested. But I suspect that the grayling are eating the needles for the antifreeze and not as a food source.

Riddle solved, twenty three years later, thanks Trevor. Can’t wait to tell Rob in the morning.

[Bleak]

Some good advice there, thank you.

Mate, Opening up 2, 3yr old post will soon get you over 25 post access to the full site, then you can have real fun

Thanks Paul,
I am on leave this week and using the time
to have a look around the forum.

Unsure what you mean by "real fun " but it
sounds interesting. If you mean being able to
sell items. I don't have anything, other than
a reel. Kindly gifted by a member. I am
looking to make a start in the new year,
after a thirty odd year absence from angling.
Kind regards,
Phil.

Sorry Phil i had not answered your pm asking the same question nothing personal, i just was pointing out when you post 25+ you open up more access on the forum.

Which means you get to buy, or sell, and the fun part, you get to read personal fishing journals where you can read great reports on our fishing exploits with some stunning tackle.

Chill & Enjoy

Not a problem.
Thanks for the reply.

[Dave Burr]

Evolution at its finest. I agree with Duckett, an incredible piece of information that has blown my mind.

[Santiago]

Yer, it's pretty amazing!

[Silfield]

Fascinating stuff! It has been quite an education reading this thread.

[Pallenpool]

On the subject of eating purely for combating the cold - antifreeze as Santiago suggests - would this be transferable/applicable to other species in our rivers and lakes and what may these sources be?

[Santiago]

I've no idea about other species. It's just a hunch that grayling eat spruce needles to stop themselves from freezing, because of the antifreeze. Most species in really cold climes make their own antifreeze. There's a fish in the Arctic that does so, and can withstand being frozen in a block of ice. The Eskimos refer to it as the candle fish which they historically used to burn for lighting. (I read about it in a book called The Snow People, by a woman called Herbert, can't remember her first name).