Bad news at the Bridge

[Shawn Kimbro]

1. There's a brown algae bloom.

2. There's a ray invasion.

Both are early this year.

[nosloclan]

They are in Eastern Bay in force....

[crabby and son]

Doesn't look like you can get a bait through that.........Gary

[Skip]

I think the price of retrieving snagged anchors just went up.

Man , I hate those winged demons

[B-Faithful]

Great. Chumming is just getting good. The last thing we need is a couple of rods going down with those things.

[Steve F]

Shawn,
We never seen one today but if they are bunched up like that we are in trouble

[Spot77]

What would cause both of those? (The gnarly looking algae AND the nasty rays).....

The water was GREAT last week....pretty clear, no algae and the White Perch were biting well.

[Skip]

The Cownose ray population has been growing roughly 10% every year for the past 15 years or so.
The large inshore sharks that feed on rays were killed off by recs and comm. fishing. Big Bulls , Lemons , Hammerheads are scarce now.
Some estimate the shark population at about 5 %.
Hammerheads are about 2 %.
With no commercial value and very questionable table fare - rays just keep breeding.

The brown water is sorta tied into the rays. The devour oysters and clams that filter the water.

Each year - water quality gets worse and the dissolved oxygen levels are shallower each year. One reason we are seeing bigger Rock in 25 feet.
Years ago - they would hang out near 40 feet of water.

[B-Faithful]

Maybe we need to thin the herd... Who wants to have a CBAngler trash fish tournament for the biggest ray..

[DirtyFrank]

And blues are there too Shawn, had a clean bite off on Saturday.

Summer is here early.