'Shaark' Part 2

So, I was finally able to get out, at least for a quick time of suds in the surf with our grandchildren last week.

Some bloodworms and fishbites on a sabiki rig produced some nice sized Spot (aka Lafayette)

Spot Leiostomus xanthurus

Spot are a short-lived baitfish that are also known as spot croaker or flat croaker. Spot are part of the drum family and the males can make a drumming noise with their swim bladder. They are a schooling fish that can tolerate a wide range of temperature and salinity, making them common to a variety of habitats in large numbers.

Spot are commercially and recreationally fished for as bait using gill nets, cast nets and haul seines¹². It is not uncommon for fishermen to use spot as live bait. They can do this by hooking the fish using a Sabiki rig. These rigs are multi-lure rigs that are made to be able to cast into a school of baitfish. Spot are considered good to eat and are commonly harvested as food. Commercially harvested spot are also used by pet food processers.

Spot feed on benthic invertebrates, including copepods and polychaetes. Similar to previously discussed baitfish, spot turn these primary producers into sources of energy for species higher in the food chain. Adults are fed on by striped bass, sharks, seatrout, bluefish, mackerels, gars and flounder.

Finally, took a head from a spot and threw it out on my conventional rig: a 9' MH conventional rod, Shimano Calcutta 200B reel spooled with 40lb braid, and a 5/0 float rig on a wire leader, 4oz sputnik sinker to help hold in the longshore current which was an in-between artifact of TS Fred and the oncoming Hurricane Henri (on-ree' par le voux Francois?) 

Early Fall

We have had a decent "Local Summer"... the time of year when the air and water are both still warm, but most of the tourists have long gone back to their winter residences.

Late shoreline fishing brings in a ton of small fish: blues, spot, kingfish, blowfish, and some southern visitors like small jacks and pompano, along with Spanish Mackerel, Bonito and Albies, at least for those who fish near some deep water channels.

Spot:



Pompano:



I was finally able to get out and fish a few weeks ago. Time has been slipping by this year with a busy schedule at work, some minor health issues, and what seemed to be an interminable number of "health professional" appointments. While I have set my sights on "retirement", I've not yet been forced to deal with it. My wife and I aren't getting any younger, so while I enjoy the paycheck, and my employer seems to derive benefit from me, enough to keep giving it, I do look forward to moving on to the next phase of my "career": being a stay at home husband.  Soon? Either by choice or by force-of-the-workplace, I don't know. Some day for sure.

Reports had been encouraging and the surf had enough signs of life. While it was not the "fish on every cast" that I would expect this time of year, having just weathered a fairly robust storm a few days earlier, I did manage to get the first fish on the vintage fiberglass rod I had a local rod rebuilder "do up" for me.

This original rod was one of my father in law's favorite rods for surf, and even some pier, fishing. I paired it with an equally vintage reel: the venerable Penn 9M level wind, spooled up with his favorite 20lb Ande mono. Gosh just typing that combination of rod, reel and mono brings back so many memories.

Getting down to the beach, I tried for kingfish using a seaworm rig to no avail. While reports of their appearances were still coming in, I found no love in the area, and at the time, I was there. So, i laid out a mullet rig and waited. Eventually, I also noticed some disturbances in the surf, and threw a cast net yielding baby pompano (alluded to above), as well as the more usual mullet:



Using these mullet on traditional "mullet rigs" that the bait shops sell is almost a guaranteed recipe for any bluefish in the area (the one below is a typical setup):

This evening was typical and was glad to put a bend in the old, revitalized, rod. Memories indeed!

The Year of the SPOT

NOT!

Interesting information on the lifecycle of the "lowly" SPOT, aka Lafayette, from an angler who goes by the internet name of Bucktail Willie (I have a link to his blog over on the right!):

Forget this year as it was year 2 of their 6-7 year cycle. Last year nothing.this year there were afew around. Next year will see abundance following 2 years consistent. Year 6 majority will be huge and than the 6 -7 year cycle will start all over. Been like that for last 60 years. Except 45-60 years ago the cycle was longer usually 7-8 years. In early days they were called CAPEMAY GOODIES and not Spot

Spot (fish)

  (Redirected from Spot croaker)

Not to be confused with Spotfin croaker.

Spot
Conservation status
Not evaluated (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Perciformes
Family:	Sciaenidae
Genus:	Leiostomus
Species:	L. xanthurus
Binomial name
Leiostomus xanthurus Lacépède, 1802
Spot range map

The Spot (Leiostomus xanthurus) or Norfolk spot^[2] is a small short-lived saltwater fish in the family Sciaenidae. The species inhabits estuary and coastal waters from Massachusetts to Texas, and derives its name from the prominent dark spot behind each gill. It is the only species in the monotypic genus Leiostomus. Spot are frequently caught by recreational anglers and are good to eat.^{[citation needed]}
Their diet consists largely of organic detritus, small crustaceans, and worms. Bloodworms are the ideal bait when fishing for spot.^{[citation needed]}
Spot are the natural prey of the following fish: striped bass, flounder, sandbar shark, dog fish, weakfish, puppy drum, red drum, black drum, spotted seatrout, Atlantic mackerel, king mackerel, spanish mackerel, barracuda, cobia, black sea bass, tautog, tarpon, dolphin. The list can go on for some time however these are some of the most known predators of the spot fish.^{[citation needed]}
Fishermen also use juvenile spot as whole live bait to catch summer founder, spotted seatrout, puppy drum and tautog as well as several other species.^{[citation needed]}
The North Carolina Spot Festival is held at Hampstead, North Carolina, on the last weekend of September.^[3]