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.