What's in that trout's stomach?

Back in 1934, a couple of guys working with what was then Oregon State College's Agricultural Experiment Station and the Oregon State Game Commission did a survey of the stomach contents of Oregon trout. They collected hundreds of fish from all over the state (and at different times of the year) and counted the stuff they found in their stomachs (even midges! -- there's an entry in one of their tables numbering the midges in a pair of fish at around 1800... I'm glad I wasn't one of their grad students...) Anyway, even though this data is a sort of average over a lot of variables, you can still get an idea what kinds of foods different species prefer...
From:
Dimick, R.E. & Mote, Don C.; A Preliminary Survey of the Food of Oregon Trout, Oregon State Agricultural Experiment Bulletin 323, May 1934

What Oregon rainbows in streams eat:

[there is a graph here](103 fish)

What Oregon rainbows in lakes eat:

[there is a graph here](19 fish)

What Oregon brookies in lakes eat:

[there is a graph here](25 fish)

What cutthroat in both lakes and streams eat:

[there is a graph here](326 fish)

What incoming steelhead eat:

[there is a graph here](19 fish)

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The McKenzie Page
last update: Mar 13, 1995

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