Category Archives: science

Two if by Sea, three if they attack from freshwater

Trained, angry, and potentially lethal With their backs against the wall due to pollution, and global warming, with estrogen laced runoff blurring sexual identity, and victims of a focused campaign of extermination, are fish forming an insurgency intent on terrestrial Jihad?

Reports from across the globe suggest unprecedented levels of tool use among fish, never chronicled in many hundreds of years of observation.

Dolphins in Australia have been observed using tools, and they seem to pass on their specialist knowledge to others. This is the first time cultural transmission has been confirmed in a marine mammal.

While the military is mum on details, recent documents disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act detail the escape of 36 trained “killer” dolphins during Hurricane Katrina, most were wearing uniforms, complete with lethal darts.

Are “killer dolphins” on the loose off the Mississippi coast? And are they a danger to divers and surfers? This is not the first time military-trained dolphins have escaped from their human masters. Up to 20 per cent of navy dolphins are said to escape each year.

A steady increase in trained cadre, a whale-based global communications system, and migratory regiments waiting to take the fight to fresh water. Have fish finally realized it’s us terrestrials that pollute their homes, altering mood and sexual orientation of their children, and the source of stupid triploid slaves who swim in netted enclosures waiting for their turn at the fillet knife?

Considering the ocean floor is littered with unexploded ordinance, is it only a matter of time before some Orca grabs a torpedo and detonates himself in the engine room of the Royal Caribbean?

Earth has nine terrestrial countries that possess nuclear weapons, and two species, fish have 92 known nuclear weapons in their arsenal, perhaps it’s time to dig a fallout shelter, as it’s only a matter of time before fission clouds envelope Asia – the source of so many Japanese seafood internment camps.

Salmon farmers suggest it’s Seals that rend nets and release brigades of recruits into the brine, possibly swelling the ranks of shock troops destined for our estuaries and freshwater impoundments. Quagga and Zebra mussels infiltrate our freshwater supply, while Rock Snot follows to exploit and train Asian Carp, and perhaps Goldfish.

Fishermen have insisted fish are growing smarter with every outing, and while skeptical non-anglers are asleep in their beds, it may only be our “thin green line” that’ll defend the interior.

Hell, with all the wealth of the oceans at their disposal, Sponge Bob could be sending subliminal messages emasculating our children; PETA and the “Sea Kitten” campaign was just the opening gambit in a global war of supremacy.

Can you put a face on the creator of “Catch and Release?”

A Yellow Brick Road would be a close second

Good, just police your butts enroute to the store Fishermen have always had a love-hate relationship with roads, largely because their presence ensures high traffic, making  the fast water home to drunken teenagers throwing rocks, and attracting refuse – beer cans and food containers discarded callously by persons unknown enroute to someplace better.

Firemen hate them as someone always builds a fire or flings a cigarette, ecologists despise them as wilderness has been tamed forever, and all of us are deafened by the hordes of ATV hellions that find these capillaries as quickly as they’re constructed.

As darkness falls, we’re often glad to see some even footing – especially after slogging against fast cold water all day, and a tailgate is a welcome surface to prepare a midday meal – but if you’re willing to walk a mile for a Camel, are you willing to walk two for a better hatch?

We’ve seen the pictures many times, tons of Hexagenia mayflies ovipositing in a Chevron station due to light pollution – a lethal combination of attraction to white light and mistaking the asphalt for water.

Recent studies suggest dark surfaces can polarize light better than water and can override the natural environment in favor of mass egg laying on dry land.

Polarized light pollution (PLP) caused by artificial planar surfaces has clear and deleterious impacts on the ability of
animals to judge safe and suitable habitats and oviposition
sites. In particular, PLP presents severe problems for
organisms associated with water bodies. Orientation to
horizontally polarized light sources is the primary guidance
mechanism used by at least 300 species of dragonflies,
mayflies, caddisflies, tabanid flies, diving beetles,
water bugs, and other aquatic insects. This is used to
search for suitable water bodies to act as feeding/breeding,
habitat, and oviposition sites (Schwind 1991; Horváth
and Kriska 2008). Because of their strong horizontal
polarization signature, artificial polarizing surfaces (eg
asphalt, gravestones, cars, plastic sheeting, pools of oil,
glass windows) are commonly mistaken for bodies of
water (Horváth and Zeil 1996; Kriska et al. 1998, 2006a,
2007, 2008a; Horváth et al. 2007, 2008). Because the p of
light reflected by these surfaces is often higher than that
of light reflected by water, artificial polarizers can be even
more attractive to positively polarotactic (ie lured to horizontally polarized light) aquatic insects than a water
body (Horváth and Zeil 1996; Horváth et al. 1998; Kriska
et al. 1998). They appear as exaggerated water surfaces,
and act as supernormal optical stimuli.

Thinking of buying a car? I’d consider a light colored model – especially if you’re planning on parking it near where you’re fishing, every bug that mistakes your hood for water is one less you can fish over.

As rural areas succumb to development, light pollution and polarization is becoming a larger issue – especially with insects that use dusk or full dark to oviposit.

No research describes the percentages of affected insects, but as a layman, can’t we draw the conclusion that those stretches of the river without buildings, cars, or roads have more bugs?

… this might be the scientific proof of our conventional axiom, “the farther we get away from the parking lot, the better the fishing..”

Those of you contemplating construction of your fishing “dream retreat” take note – cover your driveway with white quartz, and make sure the Jacuzzi cover is light canvas.

Brownliners have exploited this scientific “wrinkle” for years, we’re often asked why we’re trailing 400 yards of black VisQueen behind us – mostly we smile and keep walking, figuring you’ll assume the Port-a-Potty lacks toilet paper…

Scheherazade is easy. The little black dress is hard.

Miss Holly Golightly, Breakfast at Tiffany's I’m not sure that “the little Black dress” is just a girl’s best friend, it’s one of my favorites as well.

I was reminded again Sunday, when older brother and I endured another fruitless expedition; we’d tried everything else and I knotted on a battered black thing hoping it would reverse sagging fortune. One large fish rolled off the bottom to intercept -one brief throb of the rod, and the dance was over.

Why the black fly drew a lethargic fish when all else failed is unknown, but it adds to the notion that Black is somehow different.

Like the Little Black dress, black has a legion of followers. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a naturalist, impressionist, or surrealist – you’ve got a handful of black flies in your flybox, and at least one of them has made your “top 10 list.”

Black is singular lacking gradients or shades, and the flies we make from it use action words, not qualifiers. There’s no ambiguity in absolutes, and while “pale”, “medium”, and “rusty” work for other flies, black flies are syllables bitten off by teeth …

Black Leech. Black Gnat. Black Martinez, AP Black. Black is past seduction, it’s more “date rape”; failing light and you’ve tried those pastel bugs the other fellow mentioned – now you want a fly that makes Momma’s fry pan happy…

Nature sees it the same way, black doesn’t mess around, black hurts; Black Widow, Blackfly, Black eye, Black Belt, Black Death.

Black’s reputation is well deserved, a unique combination of underwater phenomenon and canny anglers whose series flies almost always have a black variant. It’s the universal color, as effective in salt as fresh, fished in conditions of “too bright” or black dark, and is the benefactor of a significant physics advantage versus all other colors.

Light rays (comprising colors of various wavelengths) passing through water penetrate only to certain depths. Water clarity plays a huge role in how far they can be seen, but the warm spectrum; red, orange, and yellow are the first colors to be filtered. Red is removed within the first 10′ of water, orange next, and yellow may persist to 30′, but beyond each boundary that color becomes unlighted and dark. Increasing depth removes all remaining colors in turn, until everything’s black.

Black is most visible against a light background, and considering the fly is often above the fish and sky makes a light backdrop – a black fly offers the best silhouette and can be seen at distance.

‘When it’s clear and bright, tie on a Silver Doctor. When dark and overcast, use a Black Doctor’

Coco Chanel is credited with the Little Black Dress, with unknown  influence from the Black Doctor, her favorite salmon fly immortalized by the above quote.

For the last 80 years – countless fellows have waited impatiently at the curb and been rewarded by her fashions, for the last couple of centuries many more have swung flies and applauded the absence of color.

It just doesn’t pay to be beloved of humans

Nobility ain't what it once was I’ve often heard the lament associated with the decline of the world’s rain forest, how the loss of countless unknown species of flora and fauna may be of enormous impact  – as some rare tree frog or rain forest lily may hold the cure for cancer.

It’s very possible, but even proof of the poor critter’s existence wouldn’t slow those bulldozers more than seven minutes.

It just doesn’t pay to be a plant or animal that humans hold in high regard, as it assures you a spot on the menu.

Salmon, widely considered the most noble of all fishes, is about to have a harder time of it now that Sea Run Holdings Inc. (funded by the Department of Defense) is about to go to clinical trials on their plasma drug.

Freeport-based Sea Run has been developing two major product platforms. One of them is Sea Stat CNS, a salmon fibrin product the company claims can minimize the damage caused by spinal cord and traumatic brain injury. The other is Sea Stat HS, which helps clot blood and can potentially seal torn or wounded tissue.

It appears a blood clotting agent can be made via draining salmon of theirs – which naturally deprives the fish of any future options.

They’re using farmed salmon, which is both a relief and a question mark. Farming fish is still in its infancy and shoveling Orange Dye #3 at a pool full of triploids may have ramifications in the finished product.

They might have to back off the shade a bit, that way when you’re wheeled out of the hospital – folks don’t mistake you for a traffic cone.

They can’t be that smart, they eat sticks and leaves

I’ve always struggled with fish vision and how it fits with my imitation of prey. Like most anglers I’m probably too quick to declare fly tying “success” and my brief victory may be for all the wrong reasons.

It’s hard enough to get into a fish’s head, but to look out their eye compounds the issue a hundredfold. The only adequate simulation is to chug a fifth in a single draught, erasing 160 IQ and yielding “fish eye” vision – but doesn’t give adequate time to tie enough flies before the remedy is expelled violently.

We’re left to guess at what fish see and think.

Prevailing theory has all manner of interesting wrinkles that most fishermen should be aware of:

An AP Black seen via binocular vision

Development of receptors for “blue” are among the last grown in human children, and it’s suspected that more primitive eyeballs (fish) lack these receptors – and view the color differently.

Fish eyes are tuned to their prey, and the movement of a fleeing baitfish is seen better by a Striped Bass, than a smelt.

The same fly via Fish Eye lens Fish vision is not binocular, they must integrate two separate images of the same scene when looking to the front. There is a gap of missing information between the two images – as fish have eyes mounted on their sides and cannot see what’s in front of their nose.

APBlack as two discrete images with gap Fish eyes have evolved over many millions of years in a pristine environment, now the Man has “muddied the waters” vision is limited by turbidity, and fish diets are changing – from what they’re attuned for, to what they can see.

While it’s a struggle to resolve the scientific detail, and our laymen’s understanding of vision, this has to be one of the reasons why a #16 Royal Wulff catches fish during a Pale Olive hatch.

While the Royal Wulff doesn’t resemble a Pale Morning Dun, if it enters the right focal plane it might be missing the entire red floss center section, or the skewed visual of hackles obscure enough to make it resemble what’s hatching.

It’s food for thought certainly, and when you stop to consider some of these theories, how many well known mayflies and caddis are blue?

Flowers are color coded so that the best pollinator responds to its bloom, I’m sure similar holds for the balance of nature – it’s why we gaze in rapture at the pictures on the restaurant menu, then gaze in wonderment at the lifeless turd that arrives on our plate.

I’d describe myself as an impressionistic fly tier, I rarely use exacting imitations with knotted legs and painstaking detail, those flies work best on fishermen. I like simulation and movement rather than detail, and the precise proportions we’re taught to use are skewed by water quality and the perceptive limitations of our quarry.

It’s akin to reincarnation, everyone is someone famous in a past life, and we accredit fish with all the “smart” traits because they outwit us. If that holds water, it’s likely they’re victimized by flatulence and bad breath as well.

I’d guess that trout eat as many twigs and stems as mayflies, like humans they can’t all have perfect vision, and the older the fish gets the bigger its prey. Not because it’s “big fish big meal” – rather it can see the big meal clearly, and little stuff could be food, but often as not it’s debris.

Could be I’ve stumbled upon the reason why there’s so many discrete streams of air bubbles in the Little Stinking, and how the residents earned the  “coarse fish” label.  We’re so concerned about the methane released by cows – and we’ve overlooked the real culprit.

I’d think they could get some good answers studying the folks living under high voltage transmission lines

Magnets are a growth industry I’m a firm believer in science, I’m also firm in my belief that Walmart will own the technology before the first salmon return successfully…

Scientists are attempting to hack the magnetic signature in Salmon that cause them to return to their birth stream, hoping they can redirect fish to different streams and increase their rate of survival.

“We would set up a large magnetic-coil system that lets us dial in the precise magnetic field that we want,” he said. “Then we could take fish from a location where they still survive, raise them in the magnetic field of the tanks, and see if they go to the new river.”

It’s all hypothetical still, but if the Exxon Valdez smashed into an Alaskan peninsula soiling a couple dozen watersheds in the process, fry could be gathered as they migrate downstream and be “magneto-zapped” to return to the Klamath River in California, until them precious Alaskan rivers are restored to full health.

… of course the Klamath locals will enjoy fishing unlike anything ever seen before, and will protest their fry being “brain zapped” to return to  Alaska, but the theory is kinda sound, maybe …

Assuming all this works, someone in a white lab coat would zap a hatchery tank full of alevins to return to undammed, pristine waters enjoying the highest chance of survival. That person would then sell the information to us (if they were smart) as they can tell us which river and what year to be lieing in wait.

By then Walmart will have installed the gizmo in their parking lot to irradiate us continuously, sending us to whichever store has the most  unsold inventory, or we’re wandering around aimlessly wondering why we want a Tofu-Watermelon milk shake in Modesto, when we live 300 miles away.

Ready for the resurgence of Donny Beaver? Even the Brownliner’s won’t be safe as big city swells lease-option the toxic brown water so’s they can program monstrous salmon runs to the delight of their paying membership. Buying massive amounts of fry pre-programmed to return to a questionable waterway will be a simple “pay for play” transaction, accompanied by two or three years of fresh “No Trespassing” signs, resentment, and litigation.

“Home” is imprinted on all of us, and I’d guess Mother Nature uses a similar mechanism for all species – so it’s only a matter of time before some creep magnetizes the girl’s gym.

Yes, but it’ll be a hearty welcoming mucous filled handshake

It makes me wonder how many world record fish I’ve caught and released unknowingly. I’d guess it’s linked to the concept of “life list” – all the species you’ve ever caught fishing by intent or accident.

She set a world record in the 2-pound tippet category by catching a 2-pound, 6-ounce bonefish while fly fishing July 27 off Andros Island in the Bahamas.

We’re used to a certain margin of safety on tippet sizes, often we’ve got at least a 2 to 1 advantage based on weight, yet all of us have been lucky or surprised by a big fish, or were caught with too small a tippet by a medium sized fish – and were evenly matched.

Figuring all the popular fish like trout, salmon, and steelhead, are out of our reach, that leaves about 99% of the world’s fish where catching a 2lb fish on 2lb test gets you an olive wreath …

I figured the IGFA as playing to the “glamour” trade; ascots, white deck shoes, dinners with fine china and guest speakers, not the crowd we rub shoulders with while idling a battered truck at the drive-thru window.

In fact, I’m almost sure the effete crowd is running things, you can’t even look up the IGFA records without being a member.

…and that suits me fine, when the “Commodore” gives me that haughty stare as I stand there with some flaccid, dripping, caustic brownwater fish – who proceeds to burp up a tampon on his dress slacks, we’ll be sure to give him a hearty back slap and a mucous filled hand shake.

The world record Sacramento Pikeminnow (according to the IGFA) is 6lb 15 ounces, which surprises me considerably, as I’ve caught fish nearly this heavy already. Likely I was using 3x or 4x tippet – but now that the flashbulbs are popping and the Commodore has finished rinsing off, it was most definitely 2 lb test …

I saw no entry for Sacramento Sucker so if any of you hardened adventurer’s want a shot at a world record, I’ll be happy to show you where they sleep at night.

… they glow, it’s a cinch.

The original article gave me a bit of pause …

Forszpaniak said she has been fishing for two years. Her husband instructed her on her fly fishing technique when they practiced at area beaches.

What husband hands his wife a bonefish rod with only a 2lb tippet? I figure it must’ve been a senior ranking IGFA official who was scared his wife was going to outfish him. I’m not the only thing that smells to high heaven…

He doesn’t move too fast after he’s been skewered

If a healthy shrimp can move that fast without sign of fatigue, I can only imagine what speed he’d achieve if dropped on the Barbie…

Healthy shrimp ran and swam at treadmill speeds of up to 20 meters per minute [66 feet per minute] for hours with little indication of fatigue.”

To further challenge the healthy shrimp, the researchers designed a small backpack made of duct tape to add extra load to the shrimp. With the extra weight and lowered oxygen, they were active for up to an hour.

If this kind of physical agility is indicative of more than shrimp – perhaps extending to some of the other bait groups without offensive capability,  It might alter my thoughts on a retrieve. Pauses while stripping may be the opposite of what the bait actually does – and with no defenses it may run until safe or it’s eaten.

We’ve spent so much time examining bugs and very little researching behavior on all those minnows, crayfish, shrimp, and other opportunistic foods – it could be we’ve been lulled into complacency by their aquarium behavior.

Running downhill is easier, the Michael Phelps fish

Salmon smolts in dammed rivers have a higher survival rate than a free flowing watershed?

Surprisingly, smolts fared just as well negotiating the heavily dammed Columbia as they did going down the free-flowing Fraser. Comparing the rivers section by section, Chinook smolts traversing the dammed system actually had higher survival rates than their cousins in the Fraser. Adjusting estimates to consider the distance and time smolts had to migrate to reach the river mouth revealed that average survival rates were much higher for both species from the Snake River than for those in the undammed Fraser. In fact, no matter how they analyzed the data, the researchers reported, “survival is not worse in the Columbia despite the presence of an extensive network of dams.”

Plos Biology has published a paper outlining a recent study of downstream migrating salmon smolts that suggests dammed rivers enhance the survival rate of ocean-bound fish. A combination of factors are mentioned, but no conclusions are drawn.

A synopsis of the article has also been posted, absent the graphs and methodology.

They found some of the salmon – most just the length of a hot dog – could swim distances up to 2,500 kilometres in only a matter months, putting their pace at about a ‘Phelpsian’ two body lengths a second – a reference the researchers made to the record-setting Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps.

Considering Michael Phelps only had to keep it up for a minute or two, that’s some powerful biological programming.

Just a little ahead of it’s time, but it’s the future of the Fillet O’ Fish sandwich

Carp for Christmas It all sounds wonderful on paper, but I remain unwilling to alter my idea of fine table fare. Farmed fish is a foregone conclusion, but I don’t think I’ll be trading the Xmas turkey for a Christmas Carp anytime soon.

It’s comforting to know the Little Stinking is the perfect candidate for a carp farm, substituting horse manure for the diatomaceous earth that makes a Chalkstream so protein rich.

Apart from a daily helping of homegrown mealworms, they browse the muddy depths where a carefully managed pond ecology nurtured by cow manure provides for all their needs. “Carp are a bit like chickens,” says Hepburn.

I’m sure some epicure could taste the difference, waxing poetic about, “earthen overtones, with a pleasing ferrous twang” – but I’m nervous about the “couple weeks in fresh water” part, I just don’t see how a lifetime of squalor can be made up with only two weeks of finishing school.

He has also taken steps to improve the taste of the fish, often described as “muddy”, by transferring the fish to natural spring water a few weeks before harvest.

I had the same reaction when Poppa insisted the common garden snail was a heady french import – and a couple weeks of cornmeal and lettuce leaves were enough to counteract the Snail-B-Gone.

Living in California requires a certain culinary cutting edge mentality, it’s part of the appeal, in this instance I may have to go with the burger instead.

At last count there was enough manure in those to earn me a merit badge of some sort.

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