bloocrab
08-06-2015, 07:24 AM
Earlier this week, the weather was much too nice to not splash the boat in for a bit so I headed out into the bay.
Not expecting much being as far up in the bay as I was...I slowly made my way up the middle. Smiling at the pogies as they frolicked on the surface, I fought and won over the temptation of snagging any. Middle of the afternoon, hot as hades...not my typical plan of attack...no sense in poking a pogy just to dump him back in later on. Being short on time, this was to be more of a "joy-ride" than a fish-hunt.
The river had that pond-like calmness that water-striders could race on with no fear of getting wet. You could easily see a ripple well beyond your furthest cast. It was as they say, "price-less"...just a joy to be alive and able. As I continued to make my way south, I questioned what I thought the tide was doing as I neared an approaching can. The ripples or rather tingling of the waters' surface was on the wrong side of the can. The closer I got, the stranger it seemed. I could now see that there was activity on both sides...one indicating tide direction,, the other ??? required further investigation.
As I approached the can, I had my Costas focused on the surface..closer and closer until I was directly over the area... I saw nothing? I took the Costas off....and saw nothing, at least that's what I thought. Upper bay water clarity is normally poor, never mind it being August and early afternoon. All I could see, other than some floating weeds...were these tiny jelly-fish, thousands....tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands? As I peered in other directions, I could see other areas resembling the one that I was on. Still being in gear, I motored over to another spot...same thing, tingling on top yet only jelly-fish? Then suddenly, almost as if he came up and winked at me...a stri-ped one came up to the surface, took a mouthful of jelly-fish and dove back down. If I had been drinking, I'd say it happened in slow motion...it was so evident that he purposely swallowed the jelly-fish. Now totally confused, as jelly-fish do not cause surface tingling...as well as not being part of a striper's diet...I stared deeper into the water. Once again, another striper surfaced swallowing a mouthful of jellyfish, then another...and another. There was a feeding frenzy going on, yet the bait wasn't reacting. As I peered closer, still thinking jelly-fish...I had to take a closer look. I pulled my plastic ice-coffee cup out of it's insulating styrofoam cup and plunged it into the water scooping up some specimen.
This was a first for me...I had never experienced this before. As I looked around in total awe, and until today....I still cannot grasp that it actually happens this way.
Now I'm no marine biologist, but I'm guessing that I was in the middle of a crab-hatch? My personal jury is still out on this, strictly because of the circumstances...but as you'll see in the images below, it appears to be a crab. Again, being where I was...I am guessing blue-crab, but the numbers that I witnessed were massive. Not only is it unbelievable that this many crabs get "laid" at once....but even more so... they were all schooled up? On the surface, like massive schools of baitfish...
Can someone please chime in on this...has anyone else ever witnessed this? I'd imagine that these critters for one, would not be on the surface and more importantly...that they do not "school" up in the way that I saw them. I obviously love blue-crabs, hence the screen name....Just like any other male bloocrab, I love shacking up and knocking flippers with a bloo-crab goddess, but I never thought to think of what happens to our chidren?
On a side note, it was also nice seeing as many 20-30" fish gorging on this buffet. Had I not trolled over to these crab-pods, I would have never known that the bass were feeding on them. Being that these crabs were oblivious to the constant attacks coupled with the fact that they really couldn't do much in regards to getting away...they were easy prey, allowing the bass to simply swallow them up like a whale inhales plankton. Really cool site...and just as much fun catching bass after bass on my tiniest buck-tail.
Apologies on the picture quality ~
Note how they looked so much like small jelly-fish....
Not expecting much being as far up in the bay as I was...I slowly made my way up the middle. Smiling at the pogies as they frolicked on the surface, I fought and won over the temptation of snagging any. Middle of the afternoon, hot as hades...not my typical plan of attack...no sense in poking a pogy just to dump him back in later on. Being short on time, this was to be more of a "joy-ride" than a fish-hunt.
The river had that pond-like calmness that water-striders could race on with no fear of getting wet. You could easily see a ripple well beyond your furthest cast. It was as they say, "price-less"...just a joy to be alive and able. As I continued to make my way south, I questioned what I thought the tide was doing as I neared an approaching can. The ripples or rather tingling of the waters' surface was on the wrong side of the can. The closer I got, the stranger it seemed. I could now see that there was activity on both sides...one indicating tide direction,, the other ??? required further investigation.
As I approached the can, I had my Costas focused on the surface..closer and closer until I was directly over the area... I saw nothing? I took the Costas off....and saw nothing, at least that's what I thought. Upper bay water clarity is normally poor, never mind it being August and early afternoon. All I could see, other than some floating weeds...were these tiny jelly-fish, thousands....tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands? As I peered in other directions, I could see other areas resembling the one that I was on. Still being in gear, I motored over to another spot...same thing, tingling on top yet only jelly-fish? Then suddenly, almost as if he came up and winked at me...a stri-ped one came up to the surface, took a mouthful of jelly-fish and dove back down. If I had been drinking, I'd say it happened in slow motion...it was so evident that he purposely swallowed the jelly-fish. Now totally confused, as jelly-fish do not cause surface tingling...as well as not being part of a striper's diet...I stared deeper into the water. Once again, another striper surfaced swallowing a mouthful of jellyfish, then another...and another. There was a feeding frenzy going on, yet the bait wasn't reacting. As I peered closer, still thinking jelly-fish...I had to take a closer look. I pulled my plastic ice-coffee cup out of it's insulating styrofoam cup and plunged it into the water scooping up some specimen.
This was a first for me...I had never experienced this before. As I looked around in total awe, and until today....I still cannot grasp that it actually happens this way.
Now I'm no marine biologist, but I'm guessing that I was in the middle of a crab-hatch? My personal jury is still out on this, strictly because of the circumstances...but as you'll see in the images below, it appears to be a crab. Again, being where I was...I am guessing blue-crab, but the numbers that I witnessed were massive. Not only is it unbelievable that this many crabs get "laid" at once....but even more so... they were all schooled up? On the surface, like massive schools of baitfish...
Can someone please chime in on this...has anyone else ever witnessed this? I'd imagine that these critters for one, would not be on the surface and more importantly...that they do not "school" up in the way that I saw them. I obviously love blue-crabs, hence the screen name....Just like any other male bloocrab, I love shacking up and knocking flippers with a bloo-crab goddess, but I never thought to think of what happens to our chidren?
On a side note, it was also nice seeing as many 20-30" fish gorging on this buffet. Had I not trolled over to these crab-pods, I would have never known that the bass were feeding on them. Being that these crabs were oblivious to the constant attacks coupled with the fact that they really couldn't do much in regards to getting away...they were easy prey, allowing the bass to simply swallow them up like a whale inhales plankton. Really cool site...and just as much fun catching bass after bass on my tiniest buck-tail.
Apologies on the picture quality ~
Note how they looked so much like small jelly-fish....