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Heavy rain and our back bays.

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DoorGunner

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Found out long long ago that heavy rains kill off good fishing in our back bays for a day or two. Seen it yesterday.

 

I'm stuck at the dock all day but I still do a little fishing. Nothing special just a ten foot long Crappie rod with a size 8 hook on a float with a split shot and live shiner or spearing for bait. On Monday I almost had the back bay slam with a lot of small blues, a striper and a flounder. Just couldn't coax in a weakie. I use an umbrella style drop net baited with bunker. Lots of shiners and with a bucket of saltwater right next to me they go in very healthy. If I do it quickly I can get one on a hook and into the water where it will stay alive until something attacks. On Monday I probably had twenty blues the striper and the flounder. Today I had nothing. I blame it one the rain.

 

It poured down here most of yesterday and I can't even imagine how much fresh water flooded into these back bays. Not just from direct rainfall but aldo all of the runoff and it all drains right into the back. The water becomes dirty but by noon the water was clear around the dock. Still nothing. One live shiner made it for an entire hour dangling on my hook but again nothing. Years ago when we had two saltwater aquariums I did a test with a hydrometer to see what the salinity was like. Did a check while out in the deep on a tuna trip and the salinity was perfect. Was shocked to find out there was a much higher salinity reading in the back waters. After thinking about it the salinity difference made sense. Shallow back bay waters with dark bottoms cause quick water evaporation and water evaporates but salt doesn't so the salinity goes way up. Don't have the hydrometer any longer but I'd be willing to bet that after all that rain yesterday had the salinity dropping big time and that is why I believe the fishing and crabbing take a hit for a day or two. We need a few good tide changes to get these waters back to normal.

 

Most critters back here can live in either high or low salinity waters just like they can do fine in cool or warm waters. What screws them up is quick drastic changes in either temps or salinity. They are cold blooded and need time for their bodies to adjust. Today we had a family of five rent a boat to do some crabbing and I asked if they could put it off for one day to give the waters a chance to even out. The head of the family said no and they were excellent crabbers and new what they were doing. They headed out with ten traps and twenty bunker cut in half. Five hours later they returned with fourteen keeper crabs.

 

I could be wrong on all of this but after watching over the years I'm sticking with my theory. If you can put off a back bay trip for even a day after a long day of heavy rain then take it. Give the water a chance to get back to or near normal.    

 

 

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On 8/30/2017 at 11:32 PM, DoorGunner said:

 "Today I had nothing. I blame it one the rain."

 

Gotta blame it on something.....

 

 

 

Edited by Sawzall
"It is required of us that we be tender of the good name of our brethren; where we cannot speak well, we had better say nothing than speak evil."
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In Raritan Bay, it take longer to move out all of  the runoff. Many more of the natural filters, that are down south, have been removed and replaced with roads, development (with chemical assisted manicured lawns), and of course the sewage treatment operations. Then there is  the floatable debris from the tributaries feeding into the Raritan River, Arthur kill, Kill Van Kull and the Hudson River.  Amazing that we have the fishery that we do and I wish it only took one day!!! Great post Doorgunner!

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