JAY MANN'S FISHING WEBSITE ::: Daily Blog --
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(Above: This trout hatchery was baffled by the unexplained loss of its fish, blaming everything from raptors to poachers. It was this photo taken by a tourist that offered the astounding answer. The trout were jumping into this inflow pipe, fighting the water flow all the way back to a source reservoir , where the fish eventually found freedom. Wow. Give those fish some sorta reward. )
Thursday, July 24, 2008: Waves: Large: push of medium period swells to 4-6 feet and grinding; loads of south to north current. Water clarity: A turn for the better; east winds for a while yesterday wasted no time pushing in clearer and cleaner water; hard south winds today could much that up. Water temps: Slight uplift to low 60s, though still pockets of nasty cold water; temps could upwell and drop again as south winds just won’t quit.
There was a sigh of relief from the Pinelands last night as a downpourous dousings took place via heavy t-storms. The heavily moisturized storm cells also reached LBI – and offered a touch or relief to browning lawns. However, such hit-or-miss storms do very little to break a drought – when water tables lower, needing massive long-term input of moisture, best offered by something like a tropical storm rain. Even during cloud bursts with over 2-inches of quick-order rain, the moisture only makes it down a few inches before the thirsty earth absorbs it – or warm surface sands evaporate it away. Fortunately, we are looking at a very protracted period of unstable moisture-laden weather. That’s not the worst thing for fishing. Along with subdued lighting, unstable weather can be marked by periods of lighter winds. It’s getting obvious that we need something to snap these southerlies.
As for angling, it’s summer (in case you hadn’t noticed) so many folks are fighting the systems (weather) to make some hay before the season ships out all too quickly. Many folks are going out near port to work on what continues to be as astounding a showing of fluke as we’ve seen in possible decades. Readers get miffed when I write that when they haven’t got a take-home fish after 30 throwbacks. Sorry, but the fluke fishing is fine – the keeping fully sucks, admittedly.
I went out to do one of my backbay creek checks to see where we stand with bunkies and mullet – which actually begin to drift seaward very soon – sometimes taking upwards of an entire month to reach the inlet zones where they’ll muster for migration. Well, I managed three casts of the net and despite soaking myself in industrial grade bug repellent I couldn’t stand the greenheads and biting flies. They are simply the worst I’ve ever seen, so much so that usually crowded bayside crabbing sites are totally absent of trap-throwers.
Here’s a composite report form Jim H., writing for the BH Charter Fishing Association:
The boats of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association are continuing to find plenty of action on undersized fluke, but keepers are still hard to come by.
Captain Lindsay Fuller on the “June Bug” took the Zalewski family from Newton bottom fishing. Fighting cold bottom temperatures they managed to boat a number of fish, but none of legal length. The group enjoyed the weather and ay on the water. Another day Captain Fuller fished the Patterson family from Haddonfield. Rebecca, nine, and Decker, six, worked very hard catching short fluke, skates, and sea robins. On their last drift at a secret spot of mate Nate Figley, the kids boated a 19-inch fluke to take home.
Captain Frank Camarda fished the “Miss Beach Haven” in the bay recently in order to find some warm water. There were not many keepers but ton of action on fish up to 17-inches. The incoming tide brought non-stop action. On Saturday the “Miss Beach Haven found a patch of fish in the ocean holding several keepers along with some ling. Pool winner was Darrel Vandeleur of Hamilton with a 4-pound flattie.
Captain Adam Nowalsky of the “Karen Ann II” reports a change in wind direction brought a return to some decent bottom fishing. The Dave Young party had a mixed bag of ling and sea bass to 3-pounds while Robin Cunningham and Linda Yost caught some nice sea bass on a half day trip.
Nowalsky tried a tuna trip to the 20-fathom line but only picked up some big bluefish.
Captain Fran Verdi of the “Drop Off” had the Van Orden party out for some reef fishing and they picked up nine keeper sea bass to 19-inches. The Butterworth party ran into some problems with thick fog but managed 8 keeper sea bass.
Captain Dave Wittenborn fished the Garden State South Reef with Ed Lawson and party and managed a handful of keepers. The catch of the day was a 6.22-pound blackfish which it a fluke rig baited with squid and spearing. On Sunday heavy fog forced him to fish the fish factory area of Great Bay for fluke. They had some keepers but the throwback ratio was 12-1. Gulp bait on bucktails worked best.
Wittenborn snuck a trip to Lemke’s Canyon for tuna around his fluke trips. He saw signs of tuna in the 77-degree water, but rough sea conditions made catching difficult.
PUFFERS WITH BAD INTENT: I’m sorry I’m running a little late getting this news story to you – and hopefully it hasn’t cost any of you guys dearly.
The essence of this you-can’t –be-serious story focuses oo the fact you really don’t want to piss off certain puffer fish.
I’ll begin with the exact lead from a world news wire. It read: “A Cambodian teenager was recovering in the hospital after an angry puffer fish attacked him in the groin.”
Oh, it gets meatier, believe me.
The story heralds from the Khmer-language Koh Santepheap, a popular Cambodian newspaper, which (and, I kid you not) ran a front-page photograph of the unnamed 13-year-old “in a hospital bed with heavy strapping around his testicles,” per the news wires. “Smile.”
Note to self: They say that all publicity is good publicity but I’m guessin’ having a load of photojournalists jamming into your hospital room to get close ups of your fish-chewed testicles surely dispels that adage. Never use the expression again, Jay.
Anyway, the boy's father, Sok Ly, spoke on behalf of the understandably reticent lad – who spoke in a high-pitched voice even prior to his injury. Good old dad was quick to not only alert the media to his son’s wild and wooly wounding but took delight in detailing the way the boy was clearing his fishing net in waist-deep water when he accidentally netted – and somehow royally pissed off -- this apparently highly-irascible fish species.
Per Sok, the fish, when freed, was livid and decided he wanted to chew the fat over the incident, so to speak. And the puffer definitely got in the last word, via boy’s mouth. That word was, “OWWWWWWWWWWWW!” Amazingly, the word is the same in Cambodian as it is in English.
No, there were no details on how, exactly, the enraged puffer reached its mark, though I have heretofore sworn off wearing baggies when surfing.
Then, the Koh Santepheap news report offered some background cultural information that had me staring vacuously at my computer screen, pondering the potential power of puffer fish. It read, “Cambodian boys are traditionally advised not to swim in waters where the puffer fish is common.” Further, “Cambodian legend has it that the bite of the fish is even more dangerous than its poisonous spines, especially for boys.”
All right, I’ll bite. You’re telling me there is a puffer fish species out there that knowingly targets the tender region of male humans? And the fish learned this how?
Sidebar: There are more than a few anglers who see the local irony in the Cambodian puffer fish account. Locally, we are advised from the time of boyhood not to eat the gonads of our local blowfish – as if. There’s supposed to be a poison in blowfish genetalia. Who knows, maybe there was some bizarre loss in translation among puffer fish around the globe. The Cambodian puffer fish mistook “Humans can’t eat puffer fish gonads” for “You should go out and eat human gonads.” Hey, you gotta better theory?
Ironically, I no sooner got done pondering this puffer fish story – and its certain future appearance on “World's Wildest Puffer Fish Attacks” -- than I happened upon (yet another) show about divers jumping in the ocean to all but taunt great white sharks. I got a subtle chuckle thinking how these macho-ed look-at-me guys would have their on-cameras egos instantly deflated by someone suddenly screaming, in a horrified falsetto scream, "Puffer fish!" -- as those daring and dashing diver dudes climbing and clawing up each others’ backs trying to get back onboard— with the terrified sharks trying to climb in on the other side of the boat.
You never see those scenes on the edited copy of the program.
Anyway, reading this puffer story, I self-righteously balked at how really weird other cultures can be. Then, lo and who’d believe it, don’t I hear a 1972 Chuck Berry song on a Golden Oldies station. And how weird would our culture seem to a puffer fish fearing Cambodian who heard the stanza,
“Once while swimming cross turtle creek,
Man them snappers right at my feet,
Sure was hard swimming cross that thing,
with both hands holding my dingaling.”
TOP-COST TOE NIBBLERS: I want to do a breakneck segue to an oddly appropriate news story from the District of Columbia region, where rich and weird folks are freely allowing themselves to be chewed upon by fish.
It’s chic, cool, costly and carpy.
A Chinese beautician is knocking them dead down near the Beltway by offering a pedicure done by a couple types of tiny carp common to Turkey; the doctorfish, Garra rufo and Cyprinion macrostomus, the red log sucker. Both are commonly called nibblefish and seldom get more than a couple inches long.
Actually, in the Old World, practitioners of what amounts to ancient naturopathy have long used these species to gnaw away at the woes that ails one’s skin. The fish have even been used to down gangrenous skin. (Why is my stomach turning?)
Bringing this decidedly fishy skin-cleaning concept to America is a John Ho, who runs the Yvonne Hair and Nails salon with his wife, Yvonne Le. In their first half-year of fish-based pedicures, over 5,000 patrons have dangled their feet for a costly carp cleaning.
It should come as no surprise, these pedicures are huge in Asia. Hopefully, they don’t make sushi out of the fish after the pedicure. (Oh, now I’m really feeling sick).
So how’s it done?
Per Ho, you place your feet in a vat where imported doctorfish await like suckling piglets. They go after dead or badly damaged skin as if it’s soon going to be taken off the menu. The fish ignore healthy skin, so perfectly that scientists are studying how they know the changeover point between the good and bad. By the time the voracious skin-scarfers are done, you pull out perfectly pedicured feet.
In an Associated Press story, Tracy Roberts, 33, of Rockville, Md. Got wind of Ho’s piscatorial pedicures, tried a nibbling session and was quoted as saying, “(It was) the best pedicure I ever had.” She added, “I'd been an athlete all my life, so I've always had calluses on my feet. This was the first time somebody got rid of my calluses completely.”
The cost is $35 for 15 minutes or $50 for half an hour. A session requires the services of 100 fish. The shop has 1,000 fish. The story didn’t mention if the fish were unionized.
Note: Turkey has been forced to ban the export of doctorfish due to dwindling stocks. The fish are being farm-raised, worldwide.
An astounding look at these frenzy-inclined fish can be seen on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a12m-6DWbRc.
A lot closer to home, there are a couple freshwater fish species that perform noninvasive toe and foot nibblings. When readying to kayak Pinelands lakes (Lake Oswego comes to mind), a few so-called Pine Barrens sunfish readily come up and repeatedly nibble at bare toes and feet. It’s hard to keep from cracking up. I’ve sat in shallows with other barefoot kayakers as we tried to withstand the tickling bites. It’s near torture to hold still, allowing the fish to keep nibble. At that rate, it would take a couple weeks to get even your basic Pine Barrens pedicure.
THAT’S COLD, MAN: Water, water everywhere but not a place to take a dip.
As we speak, the water has sunk back into the mid and even low 50s.
Upside: The LBI air conditioning system is on the extra-high setting, as cool sea breezes have saved many folk a bundle of bucks in electrical air conditioning costs.
The downside is overly obvious, as packed in beachgoers can barely tolerate a knee-deep cool off in the suds.
Obviously, the angling isn’t taking well to the frostiness. Surfside bassing is almost as cool at the ocean temps.
How would one rate, historically, this summer, with its average 55-degree water?
While many folks takes summer water temperature readings -- from lifeguards (60 degrees today) to the Atlantic City Chamber of Commerce (“70 degrees today”) -- long-term records are inexact. Enter the anecdotal -- and no better place to start than yours truly.
I have been immersed in LBI waters for every summer dating back to my breakout 1960s days. My back-then days were spent as both a lifeguard (a contemporary of famed beach supervisor Don Myers, both of us hired by guarding legend Art Jocker, Sr.) and an obsessive-compulsive surfer – running away every August to overwinter in Hawaii.
I took sea notes for decades on end. Going back 40 years, I can’t recall – or locate in my notes – a colder water summer than this year.
Odds are this in-water frostiness is just one of those quirky every-so-often things. However, we can’t overlook planetary weather shifts. But how does so cold fit in with global warming?
It makes sense when think big-picture.
Our spring season is a transitional period when we go from winter’s predominate northwest flow of wind to summer’s southerly flow. This is the result of Canadian high-pressure systems in winter and summer’s Bermuda highs. During spring’s turnover time, roughly March through May, winds should be very shifty, often light. This year, we went to a fierce southerly flow of wind without batting a transitional eye. That’s not good when factoring in the upwelling syndrome.
If only via this column, you’ve repeatedly heard how upwelling occurs when hard southerly winds blow off solar-heated surface water, allowing the deeper frigid waters to rise up and dominate the surfline.
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