Why did Gollum try to touch the corpses in the Dead Marshes?

Question

When Frodo, Sam, and Gollum/Smeagol are going through the Dead Marshes on the way to Mordor, Sam notices that the waters around them are filled with dead bodies that seem to attract those who look at them (e.g. Frodo). Gollum then says:

"You cannot reach them, you cannot touch them. We tried once, yes, precious. I tried once; but you cannot reach them. Only shapes to see, perhaps, not to touch. No precious! All dead."
_{TLOTR Book 4 Chapter 2: The Passage of the Marshes}

Next there's this:

Sam looked darkly at him and shuddered again, thinking that he guessed why Smeagol had tried to touch them.

But nothing more is explained, and I haven't a clue what Sam guessed.

Why did Smeagol try to touch the dead bodies?

Answer 1

It is my belief (and likely Sam's as well) that Gollum, who was known to eat Orcs (and was more than aimable to the idea of eating juicy little Hobbits when he first met Bilbo), would have eaten just about anything. According to the following dialogue from the trios journey through the Dead Marshes in the film The Two Towers there really wasn't much to eat in the swamp other than worms.

[Frodo, Sam, and Gollum have stopped to rest. Gollum eats a large worm, causing Sam to lose his appetite.]

Sam: "I hate this place. It's too quiet. There's been no sight nor sound of a bird for two days."

Gollum: "No, no birdses to eat. No crunchable birdses. We are famished! Yes! Famished we are, precious."

It is likely that he would have tried to eat the corpses in the Dead Marshes if he had been able to reach them.