Bay of Quinte Report, July 9 2006

Gillian and I decided to take a quick trip to the Belleville, Ontario to do some shore fishing in the Bay of Quinte with a couple friends. Very windy conditions and heavy boat traffic made locating walleye and bass very difficult. We ended up targeting small pan fish. We caught a variety of fish, including rock bass, sunfish, bluegill and for the first time I caught a goby. The goby is an invasive species that can be found throughout the great lakes. They take over prime spawning sites traditionally used by native species, competing with native fish for habitat and changing the balance of the ecosystem.

We fished well into the darkness and my friends landed a couple nice bass and a big crappie before we packed up and headed home for a few beers.

Tongue Eating Fish Parasite Photos

Our good friend Adam Guy, all the way from the waters of Japan, sent me these amazing photos. We’ve talked about this tongue eating fish parasite before, but these may be some of the best photos to date that I have seen of this particular parasite. Good job Adam!

On Sunday fishing near Yokosuka I caught a fine example of Japanese horse mackerel (Trachurus japonicus) and when I was preparing the fish that evening, it turned out to be harboring a parasite known here in Japan as ‘uonoe’ (Rhexanella verrucosa). Apparently these creatures affix themselves to the tongue and help themselves to whatever the host fish eats. As you can see in the photos I have attached, with their multiple legs like hooks, they seem well adapted to their niche; I had to behead the mackerel to remove the parasite from its tongue. According to the literature here, these parasites are common in red sea bream and yellowtail amberjack (kingfish), but the two examples I have come across personally have both been in horse mackerel. In both cases, the fish appeared outwardly healthy and did not seem emaciated or unwell at all. The parasitic infection did not appear to affect their flesh either, as they were quite delicious.

All the best,
Adam Guy

A Different Kind of Fishing – by Adam Guy

How do you catch fish in water over ten meters deep using a rod that does not have a reel, or even guides for your line? Simple: fashion the rod from bamboo, hollow out the centre and run the line through the middle and out the very end of the rod. Wrap your spare line around a couple of pegs at the other end, and you are ready to indulge in the traditional Japanese fishing technique known as tebane.

I first started using this technique to catch a fish known in Japanese as haze. Its scientific name is Acanthogobius flavimanus; however, there appears to be a lack of consensus over its common name in English, with references calling it spiny goby, yellowfin goby or spotted goby. For the sake of simplicity, from here on I will refer to the creatures as just ‘goby’. Gobies are a small, seasonal fish widespread throughout Pacific Asia, and grow up to 20cm in size; they favor muddy habitats and are tolerant of a wide range of temperature and salinity. The traditional goby fishing season starts in September, when the fish migrate from rivers and estuaries to the sea, in order to spawn. Boats packed with goby fans leave port early in the morning from all over Tokyo and Yokohama, and head to sheltered coves and bay areas where the gobies are known to congregate; although the general regions are fairly well known, each skipper has his own secret spot, usually well-managed and handed down from generation to generation by word of mouth. The best goby points are those that are inaccessible from land, preventing others from casting or throwing nets from the shore, and where the waters and tides are relatively calm. When I go fishing for goby, I always use the services of a boathouse called Fukagawa Fujimi, which is located in the southeast of Tokyo. Fujimi is one of the longest-running such businesses in Japan: they have been a family-run affair since before the beginning of the Edo Period, over four hundred years ago. The skipper, a lean, sun-tanned Tokyoite known to regulars as ‘Captain Beard’ due to his whiskers, is famous for both his prowess at catching gobies (which is quite fearsome) and for his no-nonsense, old school approach to not just fishing, but to life in general. Although his countenance is often intimidating to newcomers, he is always happy to take the time to teach beginners – in his thick, east Tokyo accent – the science of traditional goby fishing with bamboo rods, and as a novice I count myself lucky to be able to learn from his vast experience.

Continue reading A Different Kind of Fishing, by Adam Guy

Saturday Reading

• Counting your calories? Diet guru Anne Collins has put together an extensive list of calories in just about every type of food you can think of, including all your favorite fish (in alphabetical order, A-H, H-S, S-W).
• Let him identify your fish! Ever been out fishing in unfamiliar waters and caught something you never new existed? Well if you have, send a picture over to Mike Guerin and he will help you identify it! Or maybe he already has, take a look at his strange fish identification galleries.
• Build your own portable ice fishing shanty! It’s getting close to that time of year where you may have start drilling holes in the ice if you wan to fish. (Unless of course you are lucky enough to live in a warm climate, which I am) Why not build your own portable shanty with help from Dirt Cheap Design.
• Talk about biting off more then you can chew. Yahoo News reports a thirteen foot Burmese python was found with a six foot long alligator’s hindquarters protruding from its midsection in the Florida Everglades. Another prime example of an invasive species.
• Na na na na na na na na…Batman! ABC news reports that scientists have taught dolphins to combine both rhythm and vocalisations to produce music, resulting in an extremely high-pitched, short version of the Batman theme song.

Ever Wonder How Invasive Species Get in to Our Waterways?

In an epic tale of human kindness our hero rises to the challenge. While this guy certainly gets an “A” for effort, I’m not sure the outcome of the story was too successful. Jake Bronstein writes about his efforts to save a large Asian fish from a supermarket by releasing it back into the wild. A noble act indeed, but potentially damaging to the local environment. Every year invasive species such as the snakehead and zebra mussles are released into North American water and havoc is reaped on the ecosystem.

What is an Invasive Species?

An “invasive species” is defined as a species that is

1) non-native (or alien) to the ecosystem under consideration and

2) whose introduction causes or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health.

Invasive species can be plants, animals, and other organisms.
Human actions are the primary means of invasive species introductions.

This story ends with the release of the fish, but judging by the photographs the fish appears to be dead already. Even dead, an invasive fish could cause potential problems.

For more information on invasive species visit www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov and www.invasive.org

Whats the Matter, Parasite Got Your Tongue?

I’ve caught a few freshwater fish with leeches, and seen a few pictures from friends of Musky with large ulcers, but I’ve never seen anything like this. One things for sure the next time I catch a fish I’ll be looking in their mouth for one of these buggers. You can find more information and pictures on the Australian Museum Fish Site.

Cymothoa exigua, a crustacean, is the only known parasite that effectively replaces a body organ. It makes its home in the mouth of a fish, where it drains blood from the tongue until it withers and dies. It attaches itself to the remaining stub and the fish is actually able to utilize it as a replacement tongue to draw in and manipulate food, which the parasite shares.

Link via Boing Boing