This past weekend a bunch of us from the flyfishing forum got together for our annual Rhody Ice Breaker on Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island. It's a tradition we've had for about seven years now and always a great time. The weather was wet and cold and raw, as it often is at this time of the year [hence the name "Ice Breaker"] but for a bunch of old guys looking to shed the lingering effects of a long hard winter, it was just what the doctor ordered. There were 16 participents this year spread over six boats. Striped bass were the target and everybody got some. If you don't like angler posts, bear with me. There's somethinghere for everyone.

This year we had a good run of early migrant fish freshly arrived from the ocean. Some years we've been forced to go way up into the rivers or hit the warm water outflows looking for the small nonmigratory "holdovers". We always hope for the migrants as they tend to be larger, more colorful and in better condition. These are what we call "schoolie" bass and are mostly below the legal length limit of 28 inches. The bigs are a few weeks out.

Here's a prime fresh migratory striped bass. This guy was probably in Chesapeake Bay a few weeks ago. He'll probably spend the summer in Narragansett Bay or in the inshore ocean waters of RI. He's got one more season before he's legal so hopefully he'll get to make the trip at least once more.



After the cookout that topped off our big adventure, I made a quick side trip to a near by saltmarsh. Conditions were cold and raw but it was nice to be in the marsh without the deadly saltmarsh mosquitoes!
The Bay water was too cold and muddy to do much dipnetting so I focused on the mosquito ditches and overwash pools.


Conditions are harsh in this habitat with temps, salinity and DO fluctuating drastically. The benifit though is a food rich environment free of aquatic preditors.
The ubiquitous mummichug is the most numerous piscine inhabitant.

Grass shrimp are probably the most abundant macroinvert.

When I saw these tiger stripes I got excited. I was hoping they were spotfin killies. They do have a spot on the dorsal and the color pattern seems more like dark background with light stripes rather than the light background and dark stripes of the mummies. When I got them home I starting second guessing. Now I think they are fired up male mummies. Maybe Bruce can take a stab at confirming or denying.



I was on the way back to the car when one last sweep of the net turned up this gem. I ended up staying another hour and scooped every last pound of muck in search for a mate for him, but no luck.
Threespine stickleback.

Well that's all I got. Hope you enjoyed. At least it had some stuff alot of you landlocked folks may not have seen before.

Edited by mikez, 07 May 2008 - 08:51 PM.

Sad to say, no spotfins were apparent in your photos. Spotfins are often a dull gunmetal gray with almost no glinting reflection when out of water, and they have a very distinct predorsal line on top that's never seen in mummichogs. But you were working a believable habitat, the ditch at the high end of the marsh. Usually it's best to scoop up a bunch of the bottom mud, dump it out on the grass, and pick through it. On a raw day that could be fun... I can tell it's early in the season, your striper looked thin. I also assume the blues haven't shown up yet.

Thanks, I kinda already figured that was the case. They are pretty though.
No blues yet. Probably three weeks out.

Cool stuff Mike, thanks for posting it!

As someone who's nosed around in a lot of mosquito ditches, and caught a lot of stripers I got to say I loved the report! thanks mike!