Puget Sound

[Divad]

Fished 3-430pm today at a deep south sound beach and enjoyed a resident killer whale ! It would surface and slap the water then repeat, I’m guessing to stun the schools of shiner perch that were everywhere. In a small inlet of about 20-25ft of water!

A couple small cutts to hand and shiners on every other cast.

 

[IHFISH]

It must be shiner perch season in MA 13. There were huge schools of them up and down the beach I fished last weekend. They loved my scaled down sparkle minnow in chum fry colors. My only cutt of the day was a very nice one that threw a slo mo shrimp pattern on a jump.

 

[Stonedfish]

 

[Stonedfish]

They must have forgotten how to count.
SF

 

[Jim in Anacortes]

There is a beach here on Fidalgo Island where I can easily get my limit of Manila Clams in under five minutes. These clams are "sandy" and require a day or two in salt water (made salt water in a container in the refrigerator). Once they spit out the sand they are quite tasty and are comparable to "steamers" from Maine. My clam chowder is epic..... That being said, the sheer numbers of these clams is quite remarkable. Whenever a valuable seafood is this prolific...poaching should be expected.

 

[Stonedfish]

Fished from 4:30 to 10:30 today. A few fish to hand but nothing special.
Curious if anyone knows what this plant is? At first, I thought someone had marked the beach with orange spray paint. This is in an area where this would be underwater on an extremely high tide. There were multiple areas with it. I can’t say I’ve ever seen this before. @Cabezon your thoughts?
SF

 

[Cabezon]

Fished from 4:30 to 10:30 today. A few fish to hand but nothing special.
Curious if anyone knows what this plant is. At first, I thought someone had marked the beach with orange spray paint. This is in an area where this would be underwater on an extremely high tide. There were multiple areas with it. I can’t say I’ve ever seen this before. @Cabezon your thoughts?
SF

View attachment 115457View attachment 115459View attachment 115460

Hi SF, Very cool plant. The orange plant is called saltmarsh dodder (Cuscuta salina); it can cover large parts of the salt marsh. It is a parasite on many plants but one of the most common hosts is salicornia (= glasswort or pickle weed, those thicker stubby green plants that the orange threads are wrapped around). Dodder is a member of the morning glory family. The species in the dodder group are non-photosynthetic. The dodder produces root-like structures that burrow into the vascular system of host plant. They produce flowers and small berries that are eaten by salt marsh birds, such as Savannah sparrows; the sparrows spread the seed around for the next spring.
Steve

 

[Stonedfish]

Hi SF, Very cool plant. The orange plant is called saltmarsh dodder (Cuscuta salina); it can cover large parts of the salt marsh. It is a parasite on many plants but one of the most common hosts is salicornia (= glasswort or pickle weed, those thicker stubby green plants that the orange threads are wrapped around). Dodder is a member of the morning glory family. The species in the dodder group are non-photosynthetic. The dodder produces root-like structures that burrow into the vascular system of host plant. They produce flowers and small berries that are eaten by salt marsh birds, such as Savannah sparrows; the sparrows spread the seed around for the next spring.
Steve

Steve,
As always, I appreciate your knowledge.
SF

 

[Semper_Fly]

Fished the north sound early this morning (7-8:30) before heading out for a long family weekend. Five to net and about 6 that shook loose. Only needed one fly which was a sound searcher (gurgler). Good times.

 

[Cabezon]

Steve,
As always, I appreciate your knowledge.
SF

Keep the questions coming. I love to help folks out and educate the community. And I learn more as I dig into the technical details.
Steve

 

[Gary Knowels]

Keep the questions coming. I love to help folks out and educate the community. And I learn more as I did into the technical details.
Steve

Knowing stuff is so cool and fun. I wish more people placed a higher emphasis on knowing accurate information about the world just for the sake of learning and knowing. Thank you for sharing, educating, and inspiring.

 

[Cabezon]

I searched through some of my salt marsh pictures to provide some better visuals. As you can see below, it can form a zone of dense mats in the upper intertidal of a salt marsh.

The dodder filaments can just smother Salicornia plants.

And you can see individual filaments wrapping around the Salicornia, like a strangler-fig vine. The tiny white structures to the top right are the flowers of the Salicornia.

Steve

 

[Paige]

I searched through some of my salt marsh pictures to provide some better visuals. As you can see below, it can form a zone of dense mats in the upper intertidal of a salt marsh.
View attachment 115518
The dodder filaments can just smother Salicornia plants.
View attachment 115516
And you can see individual filaments wrapping around the Salicornia, like a strangler-fig vine. The tiny white structures to the top right are the flowers of the Salicornia.
View attachment 115520
Steve

Is there anything you dont know Steve

 

[Cabezon]

Is there anything you dont know Steve

I'm not great at plants (but between my wife who is a solid amateur botanist, wildflowersearch.net and plantnet.org, I have fewer "yellow flower?" ids) and marine algae. But I'm a broadly-trained, curious biologist, my scientific research experience has been diverse, and I have taught a variety of college and graduate level biology and oceanography courses. I derive great pleasure from making connections and sharing those connections with others.
Steve

 

[Stonedfish]

Since pickleweed was brought up, has anyone eaten it? If so, what would it be similar to taste or texture wise?
SF

 

[Matt B]

Since pickleweed was brought up, has anyone eaten it? If so, what would it be similar to taste or texture wise?
SF

Yeah. Well, sorry to be captain obvious here but it’s like a tiny salty cucumber pickle without the vinegar tang.

 

[Stonedfish]

Yeah. Well, sorry to be captain obvious here but it’s like a tiny salty cucumber pickle without the vinegar tang.

I’ve read others refer to it tasting like asparagus, so was curious of what other folks here thought. Maybe I should try pickling some.
SF

 

[Bagman]

I'm not great at plants (but between my wife who is a solid amateur botanist, wildflowersearch.net and plantnet.org, I have fewer "yellow flower?" ids) and marine algae. But I'm a broadly-trained, curious biologist, my scientific research experience has been diverse, and I have taught a variety of college and graduate level biology and oceanography courses. I derive great pleasure from making connections and sharing those connections with others.
Steve

And that’s what makes you a great teacher. Never been in one of your classed but I sure enjoy albacore fishing with you. What’s it been 5-6 years now?

 

[Cabezon]

And that’s what makes you a great teacher. Never been in one of your classed but I sure enjoy albacore fishing with you. What’s it been 5-6 years now?

I think that our first aborted tuna adventure was the fire-impacted Garibaldi trip of 2019. What a mess that was between offshore weather, fire, and smoke. Still, great to get to know you at the house and have you teach me some big-fish rigging tricks.
Steve

 

[Stonedfish]

Stayed local today. Perfect PNW weather with clouds, wind and rain. 50° when I started at 5:00 and 52° called it quits at 10:30. Good morning bite with some fry getting hammered and plenty of jumping targets to cast at. Goldish colored clouser worked well. Some nice size crabs around.
SF