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Marine Worms

6K views 42 replies 21 participants last post by  Don Freeman 
#1 ·
My buddy John and I hit the canal this morning for cutts. We had a few shots but pretty slow overall. A few schools of chum fry were spotted as well.

We happened to run into something I've never witnessed in over 50 years of fishing the local salt. I've seen worms before but never this highly concentrated.
I'm not sure if this was marine worms spawn or if it was a worm hatch. If someone knows please chime in.
This was only in an area on the beach that was maybe 20 yards long at the most. There were thousands of worms everywhere in that small area with none anywhere else on the beach. It was on the only sandy area in that stretch of beach.
A gal who worked for WDFW saw us looking at them and came down for a look. She mentioned she hadn't ever seen worms so heavily concentrated either.

Some of them seemed to almost be falling apart with many high and dry as the tide went out. John picked one up and a white matter started coming out of it. Perhaps sperm?
The size and color variety was pretty amazing. They went color wise from red, neon green, tan, olive etc.
I've got some video I'll post up later. Here are a few pics.
SF








 
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#6 ·
...they rupture as part of the act....
Damn that sounds like a real bummer, I mean you finally get an invite to an orgy, you got the time, the tide, the place, and you're there and all excited about getting lucky and just when the mojo is really working then BAM you blow up and die...

there's another creature for the "i don't want to be reincarnated as a....."
 
#8 ·
Would you say no to an orgy where the sex is so good that people are literally exploding?
Like Barry White (when he was alive), I got so much to give. I'd have to think about that question long and hard... I mean isn't that how they sorta recruit suicide bombers, only the 40 virgins are on a layaway plan, plus Stonefish is there videotaping the whole thing, putting it up on the net for everyone to see, like some kind of sick worm snuff film....
 
#10 ·
Very cool observations, Stonefish. I agree with you and everyone else that these polychaete aggregations are the results of spawning swarms, probably from the previous night. What you observed were the after affects of the orgy.

The female worms release chemicals which attract males. Both are actually quick swimmers. When a male is close, the females release a stream of eggs and the males fertilize them; often both disintegrate in the process. In some polychaete species, their bodies produce special mating segments (epitoke, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epitoky) that break off from the main body and swim up into the water column.

It is hard for these species with external fertilization to ensure that eggs and sperm are released temporally and spatially close enough for a high frequency to be fertilized. This is behind the apparent synchony of spawning in many species, often based on moon/tide cues. At the Friday Harbor Labs on San Juan Island, where I did research for many years, you might find one animal in a sea table would start spilling sperm or eggs and the next thing you knew, every animal in that sea table would be doing the same. [One of the major concerns with the drop in pinto abalone numbers is that their densities in the field may be so low that there aren't enough individuals close enough for effective fertilization to occur - an extinction spiral.] I looked at the tide/moon chart for last night and it wasn't anything special, neither a new or full moon.

Steve
 
#13 ·
Steve,
Thanks for the info.
We picked up a few that broke in half and one half of the worm was still able to swim away.
In the last picture, you can see kind of a white area. My buddy John touched the light olive worm with his hemostats and it just kind of blew up and emitted a white matter which I assume sperm.
As I mentioned, this was a first time seeing something like this for me. That is what I like about fishing the local salt. You can still discover new things even after years of fishing it. We are really lucky to have the big salt pond right out our back door.
SF
 
#15 ·
These Polychaete worms are Nereis vexillosa, sometimes called mussel worms or piling worms, a very important food item for cutthroat. During spawning periods they swarm. This occurs usually at night winter to spring. They then break up into gamete filled pieces called epitokes which can be quite colorful as noted above. The female epitoke has a red posterior. Epitokes burst releasing eggs and sperm.
 
#20 ·
I also have good luck fishing the poly worm imitations first seen at Gig Harbor Fly Shop. Very easy to tie.

Deadly from a kayak. My personal theory is sometimes the fish hit the worm trying to break it up... I often get tap-tap-tap strikes and when I set the hook find some of my biggest sea runs of the season.
 
#21 ·
I also have good luck fishing the poly worm imitations first seen at Gig Harbor Fly Shop. Very easy to tie.

Deadly from a kayak. My personal theory is sometimes the fish hit the worm trying to break it up... I often get tap-tap-tap strikes and when I set the hook find some of my biggest sea runs of the season.
Tom,
If you are so inclined I'd like to see a picture of your worm pattern.
I was overly focused on chum fry and found myself totally unarmed when we happened upon this worm swarm.
Thanks,
SF
 
#24 ·
Here are examples of flies I've been using. Surprisingly the crazier color combinations work really well- tiger-striped rabbit with pinks, chartreuse, red, orange etc... Perhaps they capture the eggs or swollen worms when mating.
Sample Poly Pattern:
Hook: Sacrificial hook in vise. Stinger #6 Octopus
Bead: 3/16" copper or gold
Body: rabbit strip cut to desired length. I like the Tiger-striped colors from Hareline
Flash: two strips red krystal flash per side
Head: cut rabbit and UV Ice Dub spun in small loop, wrapped and brushed out
Animal product Fish Seafood Fin Cuisine
Organism Pink Arthropod Magenta Natural material
 
#27 ·
Here are examples of flies I've been using. Surprisingly the crazier color combinations work really well- tiger-striped rabbit with pinks, chartreuse, red, orange etc... Perhaps they capture the eggs or swollen worms when mating.
Sample Poly Pattern:
Hook: Sacrificial hook in vise. Stinger #6 Octopus
Bead: 3/16" copper or gold
Body: rabbit strip cut to desired length. I like the Tiger-striped colors from Hareline
Flash: two strips red krystal flash per side
Head: cut rabbit and UV Ice Dub spun in small loop, wrapped and brushed out
View attachment 40620 View attachment 40621
Awesome flies. How do you fish them? They look like they could double as steelie flies as well.

Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk
 
#26 ·
I live on the east side of the state and have only chased SRC once, last fall. Still, this has gotta be one of the best, most educational posts/threads I've ever read here. So cool you got this on film and shared it with us, Stonefish. Thanks to others for sharing info and patterns, as well. Not often do we get a thread that has you LYAO and learn so much at the same time. Thanks to all.
 
#28 ·
I fish the worms on an intermediate line w/slow-to-moderate retrieve from my kayak. I have noticed fish rising from deep water to hit a popper on top so my thought is I'm fishing the middle part of the water column and getting fish to come up and check out the worm. A small trailer fly behind the worm is a bear to cast but ridiculously effective!

And it really is just a variation of many steelhead bunny leaches. I have zero doubt an aggressive steelhead would whack the heck out of one of these... might have to give it a try this summer!
 
#31 ·
I witnessed 1 time in my life A giant worm ball (very similar worms) in Friday Harbor inside the marina near the docks, Can You Say "FEEDING FRENSY" The pile perch were just shredding that thing. Needless to say my dad had some Fileting to do. I remember being pretty sad when the fish towed it away from the docks.
 
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