Today was a good day at Surf City Pier for Kings and Spanish. Heard that two large kings were caught before 3pm. (about 25 pounds each) Pluggers were also catching blues and some big spanish in the 4 to 6 pound range. Also typical mixed bag for an August day, a few flounder, small mullet, pompano (not many large ones yet), a keeper speckled trout and a spot or two.
Everyone is gearing up for the 2nd Annual Mike Martin Memorial Fishing Tournament, this Saturday and Sunday, August 19th & 20th at the Surf City Ocean Pier. Contest starts Saturday at 6am and ends Sunday at Noon. Awards Presentation at 3pm. $100.00 1st place prize and $50.00 2nd place prize will be awarded in each of the following
EIGHT categories: KING SPANISH BLUEFISH SPOT VA. MULLET PUPPY DRUM FLOUNDER SHEEPSHEAD. A Grand Prize of $500.00 will be awarded for the Largest Speckled Trout. ENTRY FEE $5.00 per Category OR $30.00 will enter you in to all NINE Categories
Including the Grand Prize Category for Speckled Trout.
A ChildrenÂ’s Division for Children 12 and Under: A 1stt ,2ndd, and 3rdd place prize will be awarded for the Largest Three Fish caught of any kind. All Children will receive a gift package for participating.
The Awards Presentation and the drawing for a Phoenix Grill will take place at 3pm on Sunday. Door Prizes will be awarded daily at the top of each hour. For more information on the Raffle or the Contest and Rules please call the Surf City Ocean Pier @ (910)328-3521.
All Contestants must have a valid fishing pass or Season Pass in addition to the entry fee. All fish must be caught from the Surf City Pier during the Contest days and times to qualify. If there are two fish caught weighing the same, the fish caught and weighed in first will qualify as the winner. There is no second place prize for the Largest Speckled Trout Category.
As I sat on our back porch with Donna this evening watching the egrets and Great Heron feeding in the tidal creek behind our home, the quiet was often disturbed by the sound of the popeye mullet jumping. I have often ask myself why these fish jump. What is it that drives these fish to just jump? I understand when a whole school of them bust the surface when apredatorr is chasing them, but when a long mullet just jumps, sometimes two or three times in a row, what is the reason for that. So I decided to research the question this evening. A couple of hours on the computer, and I am not much closer to under standing the question than when I started my quest. Below is the only article I could find that really addressed the issue at all, and I am not sure about theaccuracyy andrelevancee of this article as this was written about the mullet native toAustraliaa. If anyone has any ideas, or information, let me know by email at fishintopsail@yahoo.com, and I will post it on the blog. Anyway, here it is.
Why do mullet jump?
I grew up in Oatley, on the Georges River in southern Sydney. Of an evening, and early in the morning, the otherwise calm is briefly disturbed by a splash of a mullet jumping. They seem to do this when it's calm, and often jump twice or occasionally three times in a short space of time. Why do they do this?
Over the years there have been numerous theories concerning the leaping of mullet. There seems to be two categories of leaping: predator avoidance and aerial respiration.
Leaping to avoid predators usually involves more than one fish jumping simultaneously, retaining an upright posture and entering the water cleanly.
The second type of leaping involves a single fish that does a slower, shorter leap, often flipping onto its side or even onto its back. They may also roll at the surface or move with their head above the water.
The research of Hoese (1985) suggests that Sea Mullet use this second category of movements to fill the pharyngobranchial organ (an area at the back of the throat) with air.
The trapped air is believed to allow the fish to remain active in water of low oxygen concentration for about five minutes.
Several interesting lines of evidence support this theory. The number of jumps is correlated with the concentration of oxygen in the water. The less oxygen, the more jumps.
Secondly, Sea Mullet feed during the day often in bottom sediments that have low oxygen concentrations. Jumping occurs much more commonly during the day. Sea Mullet rarely jump at night.
And there you have it. I guess it was better than no answer at all. But it still leaves me wondering.
Until next time....
Tight Lines!
Johnny
