Paddletail left in sea for 12hrs

[soupcan]

I took some time off and went down to my favorite little beach where   Elf and sometimes Kob make an appearance.  Being late October I thought I   would be catching and releasing more fish than I could throw a lure at -   boy was I wrong.  Calm waters - almost zero swell and cold sea.  I   caught absolutely nothing spinning in 4 days of solid fishing.  Early   morning, late afternoon - no bumps, nothing.
 
 I did manage to   snag and loose several nice bucktails and a half dozen paddletails.    The last one I lost in the evening was a 6# red-head paddletail and 1oz   jighead. I was furious as it was my first cast... However, the following   morning after my last failed session, I found the remains on the   beach.  Interesting to see that the little peckers liked the look and   smell enough to have a good chomp! 

[frikster]

So you had plenty of bites at least!!!!

[REEFMAN]

Interesting...
Wonder if it's not time for someone in SA to develop biodegradable lures. Just wondering about a whole school of little peckers with their tummies full of plastic... 

 I know there are degradable lures available overseas... saltstrong.com
https://www.saltstrong.com/articles/biodegradable-fishing-lures-mhg-plastics/
 

[FishStyx]

Interesting...
Wonder if it's not time for someone in SA to develop biodegradable lures. Just wondering about a whole school of little peckers with their tummies full of plastic... 

 I know there are degradable lures available overseas... saltstrong.com
https://www.saltstrong.com/articles/biodegradable-fishing-lures-mhg-plastics/

All the Berkley Gulp stuff is biodegradable, but hellishly expensive and stinky. I've stressed quite a bit over the years about what happens to a fish that swallows your plastic, and a few people have suggested that they simply poop it out, but I'm not so sure 
 

[Ziggy]

I dont know how long this was in its belly = fish looked pretty healthy anyway, and also see the fly

[Visenvryheid]

Trout looks pretty healthy but if you ate one everyday like that you'd end up with manboobs and prostate cancer..Phthalates are the stuff in those that make them all soft, more weight than the plastic in those types of lures. Shame the lure that the OP posted looks like it met a shoal of razors..

I've been looking into biodegradable trailerbaits recently, going to try the oldschool way and see how that goes.

[brucec]

Where and who fishes for trout with plastics in any case?

[forensic]

Greetings

Been wondering  myself if a fish can pass a medium/large chunk of a paddletail?

If not it would seriously impair the fish's feeding ability.Have any experiments been done?
Surely it must have been tested?

After swallowing a large metal filling several years ago, whilst eating a garage pie near Gordon's Bay I was left traumatised when I had to look for it, twice!

I used the Forkenkoerant technique.

Then when I visited the dentist in Stellenbosch he calls his technician through on the intercom," Het jy daai stopsel skoongemaak?"  "Ja" se hy,"laat die k*K spat" I should never have settled that account.

An aquarium should do some tests then we would know for sure.
It could be a very important piece of research.
Should the results indicate that fish cannot digest and or pass the paddletail plastic then a ban would most likely come into effect in all sensibly managed fisheries.

I have been thinking about having a paddletail for supper and checking out it's digestability later with the Forkenkoerant method but am not feeling the love.
My wife will not sanction any such experiments here at home. So it would have to be on the sly.
Publishing the results and the photo shoot also bothers me.
I'm going to talk to a Dr fisherman I know and find out if there are any serious risks involved and how small the paddletail slices should be and chunks vs long slivers etc....okay, I will let you know what his answers are and perhaps one of you brave members can then proceed.

All for now

[REEFMAN]

After swallowing a large metal filling several years ago, whilst eating a garage pie near Gordon's Bay I was left traumatised when I had to look for it, twice!

I used the Forkenkoerant technique.

You're special!! 




With respect to plastics dissolving, it doesn't happen quick enough to save a fish. There are many instances of large fish, turtles, whales washing up dead, only to find their stomachs chock full of Plastic.

[Visenvryheid]

Ja the double edged plastic sword...if it is inert enough not to break down (HDPE, LDPE etc) it will not poison you but if the wildlife swallows it there is a good chance that it will get stuck in the gut and cause an obstruction which may be fatal..Think plastic bag from a supermarket or chokka bag. Then the flipside is if it is the sort of plastic to break down it is most likely because there is a smaller proportion of actual plastic in the material to amount of "plasticizers" in the material like for eg. softbaits.or polycarb, cheap clingwrap etc. The plasticizers tend to be estrogen mimicing chemicals and cause all sorts of reproductive cancers and birth defects etc.. when they get into a living system/body, animal or human. So breaking down of the plastic in the gut will cause all sorts of havoc down the line and in the food chain.