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What fish are near Atlantic Beach, NC?

Started by Guest_EricaWieser_* , Jul 23 2011 08:10 AM

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5 replies to this topic

#1 Guest_EricaWieser_*

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Posted 23 July 2011 - 08:10 AM

Hi everyone,

Does anyone know any neat fish neat Atlantic Beach, North Carolina? I'm sitting in the hotel right now waiting for the rest of my group to wake up so we can go to the beach, and it suddenly occurs to me that the ocean is water, too. I'm so used to thinking of freshwater fish that it didn't occur to me until now to look for neat fish here. Are there any interesting species I'm likely to run into? So far I've seen hundreds of crabs walking around their little holes in a mud flat and what was possibly a live or dead oyster bank (not sure). I'm interested in small fish, anything the size of a person's hand or smaller. Thanks!

Edit:
Of course I'm not taking anything home or collecting anything; I just want to observe a cool fish in the wild.

Edited by EricaWieser, 23 July 2011 - 08:12 AM.

#2 Guest_pylodictis_*

Guests

Posted 23 July 2011 - 08:27 AM

Hi everyone,

Does anyone know any neat fish neat Atlantic Beach, North Carolina? I'm sitting in the hotel right now waiting for the rest of my group to wake up so we can go to the beach, and it suddenly occurs to me that the ocean is water, too. I'm so used to thinking of freshwater fish that it didn't occur to me until now to look for neat fish here. Are there any interesting species I'm likely to run into? So far I've seen hundreds of crabs walking around their little holes in a mud flat and what was possibly a live or dead oyster bank (not sure). I'm interested in small fish, anything the size of a person's hand or smaller. Thanks!

Edit:
Of course I'm not taking anything home or collecting anything; I just want to observe a cool fish in the wild.

Call the local bait and tackle store and ask them where to catch finger mullet, they'll probably supply you with the location of a few small marshes or canals. Go buy a fine mesh cast net and throw it at low tide, you can catch many things. I've caught juvenile flounder,grouper, ladyfish, pinfish, croaker,spot, menhaden, permit, blue runner, pompano and many others I've failed to mention. I've never used a dip net or seine, nor seen it done in salt marshes. I don't think it would work well either, there's not much current for a seine or dipnet and the bottom substrate is mostly silt that you can't walk on. Another option is to throw a net off of a fishing pier or the beach, but that takes much more skill. If you're going to a marsh make sure it's during low tide or at night(preferably both); During the day the fish hold up in the plants that overhang in the water, they can't do that at low tide and are concentrated, they also come out at night. If you must go during the day and at high tide throw on the grass.

#3 Guest_gerald_*

Guests

Posted 23 July 2011 - 04:33 PM

There's not a huge fish diversity on the sandy shoreline -- some baby pompano, mullet, killifish, mole crabs. Check out the marshes on the ICW side of the island, and the rock jettys near Fort Macon (which is worth a visit anyway). Pilings under the pier might have blennies and others that like vertical structures.

Edited by gerald, 23 July 2011 - 04:33 PM.

#4 Guest_EricaWieser_*

Guests

Posted 23 July 2011 - 08:32 PM

We all went to to the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knolls, which was great, and to the beach.

The aquarium had some really cool native fish; I saw my first blue spotted sunfish and banded killifish, and there was a great sunfish tank. There were touching tanks for rays, skates, and horseshoe crabs, which were neat to feel. There is an outdoor section to the aquarium that goes into a swamp and we saw a white swamp bird and more crabs. We saw a lot of the local fish inside the aquarium; they get most of the tank inhabitants from the local area. It was neat to see the fish without having to leave air conditioning

The ocean had a great sandy beach, very large with lots of cool twisty seashells. I guess the tide was going out because there were clumps of what I think was sargassum or a similar plant on the beach. My friend saw a stingray of some kind and a dead jellyfish, but we didn't see any other life at the very populated beach (makes sense).

I definitely recommend the aquarium to other people. They have a nice collection of local fish, and it's very well maintained and only $8. The fish were all healthy and in appropriately sized tanks, and the whole experience was very positive.

Edited by EricaWieser, 23 July 2011 - 08:35 PM.