Forever blowing bubbles..

No, don't panic. This isn't a thread about West Ham or the cup final left oevr from May. Do any of you learned chaps know how to tell the difference between bubbles resulting from feeding fish and gaseous releases? This morning I fished a club match on our own waters, a 100 year old plus pit surrounded by overhanging trees and bushes. My swim was about five feet deep and during the course of the first hour there were a couple of explosions of bubbles-not the tiny pin head type- which I took to be fish-possibly skimmers or carp- rumaging on the bottom. Despite careful feeding to concentrate the activity in one spot, altering my bait and presentation,nothing. Not a bite! Only later did I catch a few small roach and perch on maggot to beat the blank.
Talking to one of the other members he reckons it was a gaseous releases from the bottom, not fish at all. What do you reckon and how does one know the difference?

I've caught large eels after seeing the water 'erupt' around my float. gases from the silt don't seem to erupt as there's not much there usually.

if they are quite large and your float doesn't go under and they don't all come up at once then they are releases from the bottom.

if they are tiny pinhead things which all come up at once and your float still doesn't go under then they are probably a fish.

I think most fish can cause some sort of bubbles......Like Terry i have caught eel.....and believe it or not pike that have caused bubbles to "erupt" as they hit a livebait.

I guess it's just down to experience and spending time on the bank......i like to think i can tell a "fish bubble" and sometimes it is easy and sometimes not!.......try watching gas bubbles in shallowish water to see how they act.

If the bubbling is moving and kicking up clouds though get a bait in!

My next question then, if not fish or crustations what triggers a 'gas' release from the bottom? And what gas would it be- methane ? I know the really tiny ones can be bloodworm but these were fairly big bubbles released in bursts in several spots around my swim.

Over to the scientists amongst us!

If it is decaying veg/animal matter then I think it most probably is methane, or maybe a mixture of methane and other gases.

What other gases?

It might be a fish with wind ....

Could be (amongst other things) carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulphide and mixtures of other hydrocarbons such as ethane etc.