HACKED BY CYBER-ATTACK - ALPERENBTN

[Salt Water]

Drift fished with live shrimp under alameda poppers in high winds from 9:30 a.m. till 2:30 p.m.
The water is still brown everywhere, although we still did well. The 2 of us managed 7 trout and two 22" reds, with the largest trout at 22 1/2 inches.
On a different subject: I have seen many dead dogfish washed up along the shoreline for the last few days. No other species of fish has washed up. While we were fishing we saw 10 -12 other dogfish floating belly up at various times during the day.
Has anyone else noticed this?
And does anyone know the cause that would affect one species only?

[US Coastie]

last week I drafted those flats twice and notice about 5 to 6 dogfish floating on each trip. I have never seen anything like that. I got close to a couple of them and they have chunks missing from them. I don't know if something is attacking them or what.

Be safe and take care
Your Local Coastie
Kevin

[rabbit]

I have seen them washed up on the shore of the laguna by carribean also. Bet that brown tide is causing that.
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Fishing and Kayaking its a rough life but somebody has to do it.

[Big John at work]

The brown tide is supposed to be harmless to fish - unlike the red tide that is caustic. It does block sunlight, overtime killing grasses that serve as habitat for the fish.

It is interesting that someone said it looked like a bite had been taken out of them. I wonder what would be attacking them? Could be males who were on the losing side of a terrritory fight (it is breeding season for many species of fish) - though this is normally not a fight to the death thing in any fish species in our waters.

It is curiuos that there are such a large number of them. Makes you wonder.

[Netboy]

Over the last few days I have noticed the same thing. Some were floating and others had already washed up on shore. I've probably seen 10 or twelve this week. I didn't notice any bite marks or chunks missing though.

[Johnny French]

Not sure which species is being reported in this thread, but as they're turning up in the Laguna Madre they're almost certainly Gulf toadfish or oyster dogs. See Figure 100 in "Fishes of the Gulf of Mexico." One cause of mass mortality of this species may be low tides, which trap them in the grass beds they hide in there and expose them to heat, poor water circulation, and predation. Great blue herons love to spear them when the tides make them vulnerable like that.

I'll e-mail my old office and let them know about your reports.

[SeanH]

I noticed a dead toadfish floating across B&R flats on Sunday. Another peculiarity was the number of hardheads I saw swimming on the flat. After years of never seeing a one, I saw at least a dozen during one wade.

[rabbit]

They look like a toadfish but I would not say that the tides are low.
_________________
Fishing and Kayaking its a rough life but somebody has to do it.

[Bluffer]

I remember the red tide back in mid 90s was all kinds of dead fish along the Laguna, was mainly the trash fish.
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Fish hard, fish the Bluff. Surrounded by water!
-A quaint little drinking village with a fishing problem-