Fishing for Salmon on Land and Sea: An Interview With Wallace Westfeldt

As I have mentioned several times now, my investigation into the difference between anadromous and catadromous fish (a difference which you can learn about HERE) resulted in me contacting Dr. Joe Richardson, Wallace Westfeldt, and Larry Quilling with different questions about different fish that fit under both categories. Wallace Westfeldt is the Head Guide at Front Range Anglers (book a trip with him HERE), and last year he came into my Outdoor Ed class to teach us about stream ecology. We also went on a field trip with him to scrounge up some aquatic insects and insect larvae, and I've shared these pictures below the interview.  Wallace had some interesting things to share about fishing for salmon as well, and I decided to make this another post in the anadromous/catadromous series!

Wallace Westfeldt holding a Steelhead in Idaho.  By this point, these incredible fish have already swum 850 miles!

The Natural World: We've been talking about salmon migrations here on the blog for the last few days.  Have you ever had the opportunity to fish and/or see one of these mass migrations?

Wallace Westfeldt: Yes, I have been to Alaska for the Coho (Silver) Salmon migration; in 2012 and 2013. My trips were a little different than the norm. Most people go to the rivers, I was fishing in ocean at Yakutat. Here the Salmon feast on bait fish (mainly herring) to fatten up before going up river. We also spent some time inland at various river inlets where the fish would crowd and compete for going upriver. My fly was called a Seeker. When wet, it looks more like a herring than a herring does. However, I don't think fly choice is an issue. You need to get your hooks in front of a fish and they will eat. They are kind of crazy. In the ocean you are searching for baitballs and/or schools of Silvers. Baitballs are exactly what you would expect: massive spheres (10-30 in diameter) of bait fish swirling and the Salmon attack it.

A female Silver at sea.

Getting solid hook-ups can be challenging. The mouth of a male Silver has an enormous overbite and is cavernous. It is important to get the fly deep in the mouth. When you seem them strike, you can see how aggressive they are for food. Their tiny little eyes can't see the end of their strike, so the mouth opens wide and goes from side to side to get its prey. I don't think they feel the pain of the hook, because when they would pop off at the skiff they would sometimes hit the next hook. However, when they feel the tug of the line they panic and put up an extraordinary battle to get away.

Another female. 

A male: check out the overbite!

TNW:  Where else have you been to catch anadromous fish?

WW: I have also been to Idaho to catch Steelhead trout.  They swam 850 miles. We drove 900. They were in better shape than we were. Bitterly cold fishing, but excellent. When we hook up the fish would weave back and forth in the current, as if irritated, then they would take off. You weren't always sure who caught who.  In truth the pictures I have don't represent how big they can get. Those were the ones I caught.

A steelhead.

TNW:  When you were in Idaho, 850 miles into the salmon journey, how much further did the Steelhead have to swim?

WW: We were near the end of their run by about 50 miles. Because Idaho is so far away from the ocean, they only get one run. Closer locations in Washington and Oregon get several.


TNW: I've noticed the overbite before, what purpose does it serve? It seemed to me that it came about only in the males, and after they were undergoing their pre-spawn transformation, is that correct? Does it play a role in attracting a mate?

WW:  For Cohos, it's an overbite, for Browns, Bows, and Steelhead, it is an underbite, called a kype or kype jaw. As the male gets older there is always some evidence of the kype. However, you are correct that when in spawning mode, it gets more pronounced, as do the colors of Bows, Browns, and Chromers (steelhead nickname). You may also see other changes ... for example I caught a very large Brown once and it was particularly slimy.  Trout have more slime than most fish because their scales are small and soft and don't offer any protection. So the slime is protective.

That's a Brown Trout caught in Mother Lake just west of Loveland. His name is Big Mike, slimy guy in pure spawn mode.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Wallace for taking the time to answer my questions!  It was very informative, and really interesting!  Thanks again, and make sure you check out his website by clicking HERE!  Before we go though, here are some of the pictures that I took while we were on the field trip with Wallace.

Unless otherwise noted, the photo credit for all of the photos in the post goes to Wallace Westfeldt.

The Sargasso Sea and the North American Eel: An Interview With Dr. Joe Richardson

In our last post, we looked at the difference between anadromous and catadromous fish, as well as several examples of each type of fish.  Eager to learn more, I contacted several people who have been very helpful to me in the past so that I could learn more.  One of these people was Dr. Joe Richardson, a marine biologist who gives Ecology Tours (which I highly recommend) on Tybee Island in Georgia, and whose Facebook page can be reached by clicking HERE.  Dr. Joe has helped me out a lot in the past, including providing a guest post about moon snails way back in February (which can be reached by clicking HERE!  When my family and I were on the Ecology Tour several years ago, I remember Dr. Joe mentioning something about the Sargassum seaweed that could be found on the beach.  Therefore, when I was researching the North American eel for the anadromous/catadromous post and I came across mentions of this same seaweed, I decided to ask Dr. Joe a few questions about the eel and the seaweed.  I wanted to make sure that you all could benefit from his knowledge as well, so I am reproducing the interview here!  

A picture of Dr. Joe holding a Portuguese Man of War!  WARNING: TRAINED PROFESSIONAL.  DO NOT ATTEMPT TO PICK UP A PORTUGUESE MAN OF WAR IF YOU HAVE NOT RECEIVED PROPER TRAINING.  Photo Credit: mermaidcottages.com

The Natural World:  First off, what is it you're holding in the picture above?

Dr. Joe:  It's a Portuguese Man of War.  They sting real bad.  They are more of an open water, tropical species, but they float (I'm holding it by the float) so they go wherever the wind blows them. We don't get many on Tybee Island, but on some Florida beaches they can be a real problem.

TNW: Didn't you guys find another one pretty recently on one of your Ecology Tours?

Dr. Joe: Yes, within this past week. We found two of them washed ashore during one of my Tybee Beach Ecology Trips. I sure didn't expect to see them; but most anything is likely to wash ashore.

A picture of this weeks Portuguese Man of War.

TNW:  In a recent post, I discussed the North American eel. I was wondering whether you have any pictures or stories regarding the eel that you'd like to share!

Dr. Joe:  I don't have any pictures of the American eel; but my experience with them is that I always hated to catch one when fishing because they were so slimey.  And they would invariably wrap themselves around the rig and line so they were a mess to get unhooked.  The slime was also thick and would stay on the line even after you got them off.  Many years ago, while in college, I worked one summer in North Carolina on a shrimp boat and was involved in a few research projects on the side.  One involved developing eel traps to be used for catching eels in the inshore waters.  They were trying to create a business opportunity for catching eels, then somehow shocking them so they would die straight before flash freezing them.  By being straight, they could pack more of them in boxes than if they were all curvy.

The North American eel.  Photo Credit: cbf.typepad.com

TNW: I also found that the eel spawns in the Sargasso Sea, and I recall you talking about all of the Sargassum seaweed washing up on shore when we went with you on the tour several years ago.  What can you tell me about this type of seaweed?

Dr. Joe:  This species of Sargassum (a brown seaweed) is unlike most seaweeds, that have to grow attached to a hard bottom or structure in shallow water where they get enough light to do photosynthesis. This Sargassum actually grows unattached, floating in open water, generally well out in the Atlantic Ocean. In fact some charts refer to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean as the “Sargasso Sea” because there is lots of it floating around out there. The small berry-looking structures on the Sargassum are actually air floats that keep it floating near the surface. Clumps of Sargassum in the open ocean serve as places to hide for some animals and as structure for some small animals to attach on to. During late June, we found lots of those small animals (Sargassum shrimp, Sargassum Swimming crabs, small file fish, baby flying fish) on the beach and in tide pools because they have washed in with the seaweed clumps. All these animals are yellow-orange in order to camouflage or blend in with the seaweed. So the Sargassum has brought with it lots of interesting animals from far offshore, that we normally don’t see on our beach.

Pile of Sargassum seaweed along the high tide line at North Beach.

The berry-like structures on the Sargassum are actually air floats that keep the seaweed at the sun-lit surface.   

Sargassum shrimp (this one carrying eggs under her abdomen) were abundant in some of the clumps of seaweed.

This was one of many Sargassum swimming crabs that were common for a few days on Tybee's ocean beach. 

Small filefish with camouflage colors matching the seaweed were found among many of the Sargassum clumps. 

Although only about an inch long, what appears to be a baby flying fish was another type of fish found among the drifting seaweed.

TNW: Besides the eels and the other small animals you mentioned above, what other animals live in the Sargassum?

Dr. Joe: The floating clumps of Sargassum in the open ocean also serve as places to hide for small young animals that will eventually become larger as they age and grow. When the baby Loggerhead Sea Turtles hatch on Tybee’s beach later this summer, they will head out to sea, and many will hide among clumps of floating Sargassum far offshore. Many years ago, while on a research cruise offshore, we anchored overnight and found ourselves among a large area of floating Sargassum. Being curious scientists, we used some long dip nets to catch some clumps of the floating seaweed to see what sort of animals were among it. This was how I caught the only Sailfish I’ve ever caught!

Baby sailfish hide among the floating clumps of Sargassum far offshore.

TNW:  Do you know why Tybee was inundated with Sargassum when we visited in the summer of 2012?

Dr. Joe: I don’t recall our having a prolonged period of strong winds from the east, so I don’t think it was necessarily a wind-blown event. Instead, I’ve got a different hypothesis. The Gulf Stream current flows from the south toward the north well offshore of Georgia’s coast. It doesn’t flow in a straight line, but meanders a lot. Sometimes those meanders can be almost like huge hair-pin curves, and sometimes those big meanders, like loops, can break off and form large circular or oval water masses of warm off-shore water. If such a large ring of Gulf Stream and warm Atlantic Ocean water (and possibly water that recently had been in the tropics) happened to break off on our side of the Gulf Stream, it could gradually move toward our coast, and bring with it things like Sargassum. This is my guess: one of these offshore water masses, with its floating Sargassum, broke off and had moved into our coastal waters.

Laying among a pile of Sargassum seaweed along the high tide line was this lumber that had been drifting offshore long enough for these Goose-neck Barnacles to settle and grow. This species of barnacle only grows on drifting, open-water objects.

TNW:  What other ecological or biological effects did this inundation of Sargassum have on the coastline?

Dr. Joe:  Since the Sargassum seaweed event on Tybee, I’d been noticing (almost daily while conducting my Tybee Beach Ecology Trips) additional tropical and offshore species of animals. There was a group of Sargent Majors, a small black and white striped damsel fish that is common around coral reefs and rocky shorelines in the Caribbean and Florida Keys. They don’t belong this far north. We also got a Ballyhoo, a strange looking fish with a long extended lower jaw; and they usually live offshore where they are food for large gamefish like sailfish, marlins and dolphins.  So I’ve got a feeling that the Sargassum and all these other interesting tropical and offshore animals are signs that Tybee had been the landfall of a large warm water, open-ocean water mass. It sure made beach ecology on Tybee interesting this spring and summer!!

Small Sargent Major damselfish, common on coral reefs and tropical rocky shorelines, have shown up on Tybee in the last week. 

We've been seeing Ballyhoo in the beachwater, but they normally live in warm offshore open waters.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Joe for taking the time out of his schedule to chat with me for a bit about these fascinating animals, and the importance of the Sargassum!  I look forward to hearing more from you in the future, but in the meantime, make sure you like the Facebook page for his Tybee Beach Ecology Tours by clicking HERE, and make sure you check out his website HERE.

Unless otherwise noted, the photo credit for all of the pictures in this post goes to Dr. Joe Richardson.

Harbour Town on Dwellable

The Fox's Animal Magnetism

For a while now, it has been thought that birds could see the magnetic field, in order to help them migrate.  It has been hypothesized that, when they are facing north, they can see a little blurry patch at the bottom of their eye.  If they are facing east or west, then they can't see the patch, so they know where to put the patch in their field of vision to get where they want to go.  Recent research by a Czech team of scientists seems to indicate that the red fox can also use the magnetic field, but for a different purpose: hunting.

The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) ("Least Concern" by the IUCN) has the largest geographical distribution of any member of the Carnivora, with habitat on all of the continents except for South America and Antarctica.  In North America, it inhabits the United States and Canada, in Europe and Asia it lives almost everywhere, and in Africa it lives in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Sudan, and Libya.  Not only does it possesses the range shown in the map below, it has been introduced to Australia, where, like the Dingo, it poses a threat to native species.

The red fox hunts by leaping up into the air, and coming down right on top of its prey, literally (for the prey, at least) appearing out of nowhere.  But how to pinpoint its jump?  The answer lies in the magnetic field, which is visible to the foxes.  But how does this work?  Out of all of the explanations set forth by various journals and such, I thought the explanation from Nature was easiest to understand.  Here's what they have to say:

"Think of a laser pointer attached to you that always points slightly downwards in the same direction. Now think of some object on the ground. If you walk towards the object until the laser spot is on top of it you know that object is a set distance away."

Generally, it was thought that foxes would pinpoint their location solely using their very acute sense of hearing.  But then the Czech team found that, when the red fox was leaping in a northerly direction, 74% of the attacks were successful, while the leaping attacks in other directions had the success rate of a mere 18%.  That's a very big difference, and seems to point to the magnetic field theory.

A picture of the red fox outside of the house that our friends the Beckleys rented in Breckenridge one summer.  Awesome place to stay, especially if you are looking to escape the summer heat!  Photo Credit: Julie Neher

East Breckenridge on Dwellable