80 replies to this topic

[dredcon]

A couple of hours after dark we went searching for flounder, but didn't have much luck with such poor visibility. We stuck one nice one and saw a few smaller ones. After a few hours of being swarmed by gnats, mosquitos, and big termites we decided to move off the island and anchor over a grass bed to see what we could pull in with the lights. Tons of polychaete worms, probably clam worms from the family Nereididae, showed up to terrorize the fish and do their thing. These things love swarming under the light and can swim incredibly fast. I'll upload some close up shots of them soon. It was all fun and games until the hardheads showed up and ruined the party. We planned to fish the next morning but woke to a pretty sunrise but also a 20+ knot north wind.

[dredcon]

Polychaetes from a larval sample near Grand Isle. These guys are no joke.

[Casper]

The microscopic reality nightmares are made of.

[dredcon]

The microscopic reality nightmares are made of.

I'm just waiting for one to find it's way into my ear since it looks like I'm gonna be spending a good bit of time underwater this summer.

[dredcon]

Blue catted in a gill net. Over 50 blues plus spotted gar, gizzard shad, striped mullet, red drum, and spotted sea trout. I always love running a net that has fresh and salt species.

[Casper]

What is your job Dredcon?  Is this fun, pleasure, research, feeding the masses?

[dredcon]

What is your job Dredcon?  Is this fun, pleasure, research, feeding the masses?

I'm a marine fisheries biologist, but consider it fun, research, and pleasure. I don't pass up any chance to get on the water in my off time either. Hopefully I'll be making some deep offshore overnighters soon so we can catch some really wild stuff.

[dredcon]

You know it's almost summer when the juvenile Spanish mackerel and black tip sharks show up on the beach.

[dredcon]

Summer pattern definitely showing on the beach. This is one gillnet sample with around 900 Gulf menhaden, plus a bunch of Spanish mackerel. Other species in this sample included spotted seatrout, sand seatrout, spot, Gulf kingfish, Southern kingfish, leatherjacket, silver perch, hardhead catfish, gafftopsail catfish, bluefish, and white shrimp, each of those full baskets is 70 - 80 pounds.

[Dustin]

Out of curiosity, what happens with all of that fish and shrimp?

[dredcon]

Some goes to educational outreach programs, some things are tagged and released live if possible, some times it might be used for different research projects. But especially in a sample that big this time of year many of those fish are past the point of no return before they can be worked up, some reaching that point before they are even pulled from the net.

[Dustin]

Do you eat them?

[dredcon]

Do you eat them?

I eat a lot of fish, but not those fish.

[dredcon]

Something a little different today. I was out testing some new binoculars and checking out a new spot to look at some birds when I came across these. The area appears to be a failed subdivision that never made it past the road building stage. Not too many birds in the area, but the pitcher plants made it an interesting afternoon.

[Michael Wolfe]

Very nice, I love pitcher plants!

[dredcon]

Always fun to see these tracks when you are hiking around in the field.

[gerald]

Gator tracks?  And are the pitcherplants all S. rubra, or is that a mix of species?

[mattknepley]

A. mississippiensis, S. alata,rubra,and funkylovechild?! You're in a special place. Too hot and flat for my blood anymore, but those are some nifty pieces of nature! But dag,yo! Those polychaetes are just scary!
 

Very nice, I love pitcher plants!

He ain't kiddin'. One of his native ponds has the sweetest Hurricane Creek White-style leucos you'll ever see cleverly positioned above the water. It was my inspiration for experimenting with various ways of incorporating bog plants on the edge of my Blackbanded Sunfish 100g stock pond to try to mimic a riparian border. The intent is to increase terrestrial insect availability to the pond's inhabitants, but as the plants thusfar are all carnivores, I'm probably defeating me own purpose.

[dredcon]

Gator tracks?  And are the pitcherplants all S. rubra, or is that a mix of species?

Yeah on the gator tracks with a nice tail drag down the middle. Looked to be a decent sized one too. I have no idea on pitcher plant species.

[dredcon]

A. mississippiensis, S. alata,rubra,and funkylovechild?! You're in a special place. Too hot and flat for my blood anymore, but those are some nifty pieces of nature! But dag,yo! Those polychaetes are just scary! He ain't kiddin'. One of his native ponds has the sweetest Hurricane Creek White-style leucos you'll ever see cleverly positioned above the water. It was my inspiration for experimenting with various ways of incorporating bog plants on the edge of my Blackbanded Sunfish 100g stock pond to try to mimic a riparian border. The intent is to increase terrestrial insect availability to the pond's inhabitants, but as the plants thusfar are all carnivores, I'm probably defeating me own purpose.

I love the heat but damn is it flat here and everything wants to eat me. At least we had some hills in Mississippi. All we have here is the natural and unnatural levees.