[ValleyNature] striped bass fishing & tags at The Guzzle, Aug. 10/09

[James W. Wolford]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "James W. Wolford" <jimwolford at eastlink.ca>
> Date: August 12, 2009 12:40:45 PM ADT
> To: naturens at chebucto.ns.ca, Jim Wolford <jimwolford at eastlink.ca>,  
> mike.dadswell at acadiau.ca, Jeremy Broome  
> <acadiastripedbass at hotmail.com>, mike.stokesbury at acadiau.ca,  
> trevor.avery at acadiau.ca, anna.redden at acadiau.ca, Jon Percy <jon- 
> percy at ns.sympatico.ca>, Stephen Hawboldt <s.hawboldt at ns.sympatico.ca>
> Cc: Peter Hicklin <Peter.Hicklin at EC.GC.CA>, John Gilhen  
> <GILHENJA at gov.ns.ca>
> Subject: striped bass fishing & tags at The Guzzle, Aug. 10/09
>
> In my shorebirds report for Aug. 10, I forgot to write about the  
> striped bass fishing at The Guzzle:
>
> August 10, 2009 - I visited THE GUZZLE at ne. Grand Pre at 6 p.m.  
> very briefly, at about 1.5 hours after high tide, just to see if  
> there were more SHOREBIRDS/PEEPS there than yesterday before high  
> tide.  Sure enough, between the north end of the main dyke there  
> and to the west to the east end of Evangeline Beach, there were  
> HORDES OF PEEPS IN FLIGHT over the water, mostly as linear flocks  
> of 1000-2000 peeps each, roughly 6-8 flocks visible at once, flying  
> out from shore and then back and from east to west and vice versa,  
> joining up and splitting and re-uniting.   Thus the total number of  
> peeps must have been 10,000 to 20,000?, but I claim no expertise at  
> such guesses. The high tide is so high right now that there was  
> little or no beach for these birds to roost on, except for the  
> small area just west of where I was standing.  Tonight there was no  
> roost there, but I'll bet they are using that spot on some occasions.
>
> As I was leaving The Guzzle, a STRIPED BASS FISHER was also packing  
> up for the day, and I inquired whether he had had any luck that  
> day?  "Just small ones today", he said.  I asked how many he  
> caught, and he said "seven, and two of them were TAGGED" -- one tag  
> was a BLUE one, with an Acadia Univ. Biol. address from Jeremy  
> Broome (a student of Mike Dadswell) who has been tagging in various  
> places in the Minas Basin, I believe; and the other tag was YELLOW  
> and had a Halifax address on it.  For those who don't know, STRIPED  
> BASS have to be 27 inches in length in order for the fisher to keep  
> it.  Smaller stripers are unhooked and released, with their tags if  
> present, in order to perhaps grow and get re-caught somewhere in  
> the future.  I don't know much about how good the fishers are at  
> the catch-and-release technique, nor what percentage of released  
> fish are likely to survive and grow.
> ----------------------------------------
>
> AUGUST 11, 2009 - I checked on Wolfville Harbour for roosting  
> SHOREBIRDS at 5:30 p.m. (just after the 17:08 high tide) -- as  
> usual, they were on the rocks below the railroad tracks just east  
> of the harbour pavilion/bandshell: 2 WILLETS, 18 GREATER  
> YELLOWLEGS, and at least one smaller shorebird that was not a  
> dowitcher.
>
> Cheers from Jim in Wolfville, 542-9204
>

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