What fish eat salmon eggs? The answer is actually a lot of different fish will eat salmon eggs in their diet. One important thing to keep in mind is that wild salmon eggs are normally a cold water item because they are normally found in rivers where salmon swim up to spawn.
The trout is the main predator of salmon eggs because they are a cold water fish and are very common to rivers and streams where salmon will be spawning.
So, What Types of Fish Eat Salmon Eggs?
Even though salmon eggs are a cold water item, it does not mean that other fish will not eat them. If a fish smells something that might be edible or sees something moving in the water, it is going to try to attack and eat it, due to a natural instinct to survive.
Below are some of the common fish that using salmon eggs as bait has been very popular and successful for those who love to fish:
- Trout
- Salmon
- Bluegill
- Steelhead
- Bass
- Catfish
- Sucker Fish
As you can see, trout are not the only fish that people catch with salmon eggs, and it might be more interesting to find out that salmon actually eat salmon eggs.
Fish eat food based on the look, smell, taste, and instinct, so there are more factors that go into what a fish eats than what we think.
Why Are Salmon Eggs So Popular for Fishing?
Salmon eggs are popular because they work, plain and simple. People who have been fishing for trout know that salmon eggs work well, so they always keep them in their tackle box. PowerBait and other new synthetic baits do work, but for a completely different reason than salmon eggs.
Salmon eggs are a natural bait for the fish and they know to eat them, especially fishing for trout, but other synthetic baits have other reasons. Synthetic baits try to lure fish in by smell and bright colors, and they have been known to make the smell the same as what stocked fish in a hatchery are fed.
Salmon eggs have been a staple for anglers for many years, and it as long as salmon keep swimming upriver to spawn, it will continue to be a main source of food for fish.
Are Salmon Eggs Good For The Fish?
Salmon eggs are actually rich in protein and other nutrients, so they are very good for a fish health wise. Salmon eggs contain things like vitamin D, and vitamin B12, but contain fish oil and are high in Omega-3 fats which keep the fish alive and strong.
Much like a human, they need vitamins, nutrients and protein to survive, so salmon eggs have everything they need to live on.
Unlike PowerBait that has no nutrients in it at all or plastic worms that have no nutrients for the fish to survive, salmon eggs are a great source of food for fish to keep going. In some environments, it is a more natural bait selection compared to other options.
Fish instinctively know which foods are going to be good for them, but that will not stop them from trying to attack a plastic or metal bait.
What Else Do Fish Eat?
Fish can be very picky eaters, but they do eat a lot of different things. Some fish will only eat certain prey, while others will munch on just about anything they can get in their mouths.
Fish like catfish will eat anything rotten and stinky consisting of cat food, and chicken parts, while trout will eat things that normally appear in the wild like insects and small fish. Here is a list of things that fish will eat on during the day.
- Flying insects
- Lizards
- Smaller fish
- Salamanders
- Crawfish
- Worms
- Slugs
- Frogs
- Mice and Rats
- Snakes
- Fish Eggs
- Birds (which includes ducks!)
- Small Rabbits
So, you can now see that fish are a predatory animal that will eat just about anything that moves and looks like a meal, not just something like salmon eggs sitting on a bed in a river.
Lures are also great attractants for fish because they flash and move through the water like an injured animal, and do not always have to look like anything in particular for them, so it all really depends on the fish’s mood when hungry.
Where Is The Best Place To Fish with Salmon Eggs
When thinking about fishing with salmon eggs, a river is going to be a great place because this is where the fish know there would be eggs. Fish do have a memory and they will remember eating salmon eggs months back.
Lakes and ponds are another great place to fish with salmon eggs because of the different types of fish that will bite on them. Bass are normally not a big consumer of salmon eggs, but they have been known to bite on them when they are very hungry.
Ponds are good places to use salmon eggs if you are on the hunt for catfish, and possibly some crappie because they will love the smell, but bass will tend to stay away from them unless they are very hungry, so do not use salmon eggs as a staple for bass.
Streams will also be a good place to fish salmon eggs because trout tend to linger in streams more than any other fish because they are cold water fish.
When fishing with salmon eggs, it is a good rule of thumb to fish them in colder water because that is where salmon will be when they are swimming upstream to spawn for the year.