The big question - what makes fish bite? | Local Sports News | capjournal.com - The Capital Journal

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The great underwater mystery — despite all science and biology can tell us about what fish see, smell, taste and sense in ways that humans can’t – remains as to what sets them off and turns on their instinct to feed.

While the modern tackle industry has reached a new apex in providing both those lures that

imitate nature to trigger that feeding reaction and those forms and colors that stray far from it yet still entice a strike, the mystery continues. Each season, each outing, even each hookset provides a clue to the attentive angler looking to answer the question: what is it about those baits that make fish bite?

While we can guess as to some of the reasons, the inability to answer that completely spurs each return trip to the water, at least in some small way.

Fish don’t have handsA fish’s only mode for checking anything out is to grab the object with its mouth. Who hasn’t looked on in awe as a bluegill snatches up an artificial bait, only to spit it out a millisecond later? Even in slow motion, it’s an amazing feat. Unlike humans, who first, sit in the comfort of a dining room to eat without fear of being eaten themselves; and second, can pick up and inspect their food from the grocery store to the grill to the plate, fish operate in a comparatively limiting and limited world. While it seems simplistic, the primary reason fish strike is that fish don’t have hands.

As a result of their comparative disadvantage, fish just feed. If something they eat turns out to be a seed sinking from the surface, instead of a more substantive mayfly or a minnow, they spit it out. Most of the time though, when they see something edible, they’re right.

When grasshoppers are blown into a trout stream, or a flood of baitfish stage along the summer weedline, fish get used to seeing them and eating them and therefore, anything that looks similar, gets eaten along with them. To the point of being cliché, the phrase “match the hatch” provides the advice anglers follow to at least start catching fish once a particular forage is isolated. If salmon are eating a crop of five-inch smelt, trolling a five-inch plastic behind a downrigger setup likely draws more strikes than something smaller. If walleyes are picking off spottail shiners making their spawning run along creek deltas in the spring, a flashy silver bait would likely be to an angler’s advantage at that moment in time. And if mayfly nymphs are on the move toward the surface, something a half-inch, brown and buggy is a good bet, and the closer the imitating fly pattern is to the actual thing, the better it might be for those hungry trout.

If it looks like the food they’re eating, the more convincing a bait will be to fish based on the age-old adage. It just makes sense.

However, there are times where what gets thrown in the water to entice a bite and actually does, throws the conventional wisdom of matching the hatch out the window. I grew up fishing a small river, and in my first few seasons on the water I needed little more than a handful of fluorescent pink and bright orange jig heads, and a few dozen twister tails in white or yellow to catch everything that swam in the water. I found that pink-and-white slayed walleyes in the spring, and orange-and-yellow slammed smallies all openwater season. The combination looked nothing like anything edible – darters, crayfish, hellgrammites, dragonfly larvae or fathead chubs, among other items in the flow these fish likely ate – but nevertheless, always produced steady action and big fish. In that slightly tinted water the mystery remains to this day.

Did the light brown coloration of the river change the hue of the offering to a fish’s eye? Did the white or yellow take on a more minnow-like sheen? Was it simply the motion or location of the bait that set them off? I couldn’t tell you why, I could only tell you that my lures were taken time-and-time again.

Sure, I had my thoughts on the matter and I began to equate the orange jighead with the reddish-orange eye of the smallies it seemed to work best on, but that hypothesis as to why was purely anecdotal. But the hypothesis pertaining to the inclusion of orange in any color pattern as being better, however, was proven as the shade took root in the expanding offerings of tubes, flies and other items I used for bronzebacks after those first few years. While it looked nothing like any standard prey, it seemed to give smallies a reason to bite.

Perhaps it was simply confirmation bias which resulted in a confidence color, but I found myself at the end I desired with more fish on the line, without ever understanding the scientific means my mind grasped for and likely will never truly get ahold of.

Back for moreI’ve been asked why I keep coming back to fishing. Doesn’t it get old, catching the same fish in the same spaces, or even if they are different, just having the same experience? The answer is no, because (beyond all the metaphorical, Henry David Thoreau-type stuff) the experience is never the same, the opportunity for bigger fish exists, and most importantly for me, the puzzle remains unsolved, and sometimes begrudgingly, I recognize that it will likely remain an unsolvable one.

So, no matter what the fish actually see, smell and sense, and if we’ll ever find the definitive answer to that question as to why they bite, I’ll keep casting after the solution to the equation and those less quantifiable ones in the coming season and those that will follow after it.

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April 01, 2021 at 04:42AM
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The big question - what makes fish bite? | Local Sports News | capjournal.com - The Capital Journal

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North Huntingdon fish fry organizers fulfill big task - TribLIVE

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TribLIVE's Daily and Weekly email newsletters deliver the news you want and information you need, right to your inbox.

Editor’s note: Neighbor Spotlight is a monthly feature that aims to let our readers learn more about the people in their communities who are working to make them a better place, who have interesting stories to tell or who the community feels deserve “15 minutes of fame.” If you would like to nominate someone as a Neighbor Spotlight, visit norwinstar.com, select the “Post Story” button in the upper right corner, click the “New Article” button and complete the form to publish your nomination. Questions? Email Neighborhood News Network editor Katie Green at kgreen@triblive.com.

As with most Lenten fish fry events at churches and fire departments across the region, it takes a village of volunteers to make it success.

It takes time to order supplies and accept deliveries, then prepare, cook and box food to be picked up drive-thru style because of the pandemic. Cleanup follows, and the cycle begins anew for the next week’s fish fry.

It is no different at St. Agnes Catholic Church in North Huntingdon, where “a great team of volunteers” help make the massive fish fry a success, say the chairwomen who oversee the operation — parishioners Geralyn DeFelice and Lisa Findlay, both township residents.

“We are organizing the troops,” said Findlay, referring to about 90 people who offer their time and talents to volunteer.

It’s a big job, given the fact they said they typically sell between 1,300 and 1,400 pieces of fish — baked and fried — each week.

“Different volunteers work on different days throughout the week. Over the six-week period, the volunteers know what tasks need to be completed and each covers the various ones,” DeFelice said.

During lent — when many Catholics abstain from eating meat on Fridays and nonprofit groups snap up the opportunity to raise much-needed funds by holding fish frys — DeFelice and Findlay said the work for the next week begins immediately after one is finished. They take inventory and determine order quantities, said DeFelice, who has a business management degree and was an industrial buyer for the majority of her career.

Findlay, a veterinarian, keeps track of food sold on an Excel spread sheet. That helps her plan orders, which are placed Saturday morning.

The flash-frozen cod is delivered Monday by a local supplier whom the women declined to identify, preferring to keep it a secret from the competition.

On Tuesday, the fish is rotated and “flipped” in the cooler to aid in defrosting. Wednesdays are devoted to making many roasters of haluski, as well as the church’s own recipe for tartar and cocktail sauces. Volunteers make two homemade soups.

On Thursday, the fish is individually trayed in preparation for hand breading or baking the next day. Before the sun rises Friday, volunteers are getting ready for the meal, making fresh coleslaw and cutting lemons. A crew takes on the task of baking and frying fish, dishing out soup and putting pierogis and haluski in take-out containers.

The two women oversee the operation in a kitchen that would draw envy from many restaurateurs.

“We kind of complement each other. We are in sync,” Findlay said. The pair has been running the fish frys for the past eight years, after a previous organizer retired.

Despite the covid pandemic, DeFelice said sales this year are about the same as in 2019.

They have adjusted their operations to an all-takeout, drive-thru system where people order from their vehicles and pay at one side of Resurrection Hall. Volunteers get the order to the kitchen crew. The customer drives around to the rear of the building, where volunteers deliver the food curbside. To make the transactions easier and reduce contact with volunteers, the women instituted a payment system to accept debit and credit cards this year.

Even in the busiest of times, volunteers can take an order, get it filled and delivered to a waiting car within 15 minutes, DeFelice said.

“We’re just doing what Chick-fil-A perfected,” Findlay said, noting the long lines of vehicles seen at the restaurant chain along Route 30 locations in Hempfield.

DeFelice said volunteers put in so many hours to help raise money for the church for good reason.

“It’s about commitment and the love of God and for the glory of God,” she said.

Joe Napsha is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Joe at 724-836-5252, jnapsha@triblive.com or via Twitter .

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Bones evolved to act like batteries, 400-million-year-old fish suggest - National Geographic

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By studying the fossilized remains of ancient fish, scientists have uncovered a turning point in the development of one of the most important parts of humans and other animals: bone. While bones primarily provide a structure to support the body, these hard tissues are always changing and provide other benefits to vertebrate bodies. Bone maintains itself, repairs injuries, and provides key nutrients to the bloodstream.

The earliest bones, however, were very different from human skeletons today. In the prehistoric past, bone was more like concrete, growing on the exterior of fish to provide a protective shell. But according to a new study in the journal Science Advances, the first bones with living cells—like those found in humans—evolved about 400 million years ago and acted as skeletal batteries: They supplied prehistoric fish with minerals needed to travel over greater distances.

The fossilized creatures in the analysis are known as osteostracans. “I affectionately call them beetle mermaids,” says Yara Haridy, a doctoral candidate at the Berlin Museum of Nature and lead author of the study. These fish had a hard, armor-encased front end and a flexible tail growing out the back. They had no jaws, and their bone tissue encased their bodies. These kinds of fish are critical to understanding the origins of the hard parts that shaped vertebrate evolution.

Haridy’s research focuses on osteocytes, the cells that become walled-in by the hard, mineral part of bone as part of skeletal growth. The earliest animals with bone didn’t have osteocytes, however, and some modern fish also don’t have these cells, leading paleontologists to wonder when and why these bone cells first developed.

“I basically started to become obsessed with the question: Why osteocytes?” Haridy says.

A new 3D technique

Solving the mystery of bone cells has proven challenging for paleontologists. Traditionally, Haridy explains, researchers study the microscopic structures of bone by slicing off thin sections and examining them on two-dimensional slides. But this method doesn’t provide a full, three-dimensional picture of what bone cells really look like.

A method developed for materials science and other engineering applications allowed Haridy and colleagues to reveal bone structures that scientists have not previously been able to study. “I saw one of my colleagues’ posters in the hallway with amazing images of pores in batteries, and they looked like cells,” Hariday recalls. The method used to make those images was called focused ion beam milling and scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM), which creates detailed, three-dimensional scans. Haridy asked what objects the technique could be applied to, and when she learned that a stable, dry object is best, she says she “basically screamed, What’s more stable than rock?”

The resulting scans of osteostracan fish fossils were beyond Haridy’s expectations. “My amazing co-author Markus Osenberg nonchalantly sent me an email of early images,” she recalls, “and I called him to make sure it wasn’t a model but our actual data, that’s how unbelievable it was.”

The scans did not show the actual bone cells—which decayed long ago—but they did reveal the cavities where bone cells lived inside the ancient fish. “I was looking at a space where a little cell lived over 400 million years ago,” Haridy says.

Batteries of bone

While reviewing the scans, Haridy and her team noticed that the bone tissue around the cell cavities was eaten away. These little divots were not the sign of a disease or injury, however. The bone cells had dissolved some of the tissue so that the calcium, phosphorous, and other minerals inside could be sent into the ancient fish’s bloodstream.

The cells turned bone tissue into a kind of battery, releasing stored minerals needed for bodily processes such as nourishing the muscles needed to swim. In turn, the need for additional minerals helped drive the evolution of cellular bones, a change that influenced the trajectory of vertebrates.

“This hypothesis has been around for a while, but has lacked corroboration,” says Imperial College London paleontologist Martin Brazeau, who was not involved with the study. The research provides fresh evidence that early bone cells repurposed the armor of osteostracans to provide an extra boost of energy. “Haridy and colleagues found that the margins around osteocytes were a lower density than the surrounding bone and make a strong case for this being evidence of mineral metabolism,” adds University of Birmingham paleontologist Sam Giles, who also was not involved in the study.

Unfortunately, the FIB-SEM process used to create the high-definition bone images can only look at bone tissue near the surface of the fossil, and it destroys that part of the specimen during the process, so it is not always the ideal method for studying fossil bones. Even so, using the technique on a select few fossilized bones can lead to discoveries about the evolutionary function of skeletons.

In addition to revealing the bone cavities that cells once occupied, the study was able to uncover the shape and connections of cells between bones, which has not been done before. “This approach is very promising,” says Sophie Sanchez, an anatomist at Uppsala University in Sweden who was not involved with the study. She says it could be especially useful if combined with other techniques look deeper than the outer surface of fossil bone.

The fact that ancient fish were able to draw on the mineral stores of their own skeletons in times of need had major consequences for life on Earth. Without developing cellular bones, fish probably wouldn’t have been able to undertake long migrations, Haridy notes, because they wouldn’t have had the need minerals to nourish their muscles.

Vertebrates may never have made it onto land without osteocytes, she adds, given that bone batteries supply calcium for egg laying and lactation. Evolution might have gone down a different avenue, one that wouldn’t have included creatures like dinosaurs or mammals.

What the team gleaned from the ancient fish bones is only the beginning, Haridy says. Revealing bone cells in detail, hundreds of millions of years after the cells themselves have died, has the potential to uncover all sorts of osteological secrets that could not be detected before. “Much like the first CT scans opened up the paleontological field and bore new methodologies,” Haridy says, “I predict this method will continue to surprise us in the future.”

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April 01, 2021 at 01:00AM
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Catfish at Sloans Lake died by temperature shock says Game and Fish - Buckrail

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Game and Fish along with fish biologists say that catfish at Sloans Lake in Cheyenne likely died from shock when they were stocked in the lake’s cold water in December. Photo: Peggy Greb, USDA.

LARAMIE, Wyo. — Fish biologists with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department say dead channel catfish being reported at Sloans Lake in Cheyenne likely died from shock when they were stocked in the lake’s cold water in December.

Game and Fish received several phone calls from the public with concerns about numerous dead channel catfish that have washed up onshore.  WGFD personnel has since retrieved many of the dead catfish.  Laramie Region Fisheries Supervisor Bobby Compton said the catfish were stocked in the lake in December after they were obtained from the Wyoming Women’s Center in Lusk through their in-house fish rearing program. The lake received 500 channel catfish weighing between 2 to 3 pounds each in December.

“The fish were healthy when they were stocked. They most likely died from temperature shock when they went from the warmer water in the hatchery to the ice-covered lake,” Compton said. “We have never attempted to stock catfish through the ice, but felt they should acclimate accordingly and survive, but this hardy fish species simply didn’t do well. People were seeing dead fish through the ice shortly after stocking, and when the ice melted there were more,” he said.

In July of 2020, Sloans Lake received 1,500 smaller, catchable-sized channel catfish from the Wyoming Women’s Center. Those fish thrived in Sloans Lake and provided fishing opportunities for anglers throughout the summer. The Wyoming Women’s Center contacted Game and Fish again in December with the 500 additional 2 to 3-pound catfish that needed to be stocked because they needed space in their facility.

While it was unfortunate these particular catfish did not survive, the WGFD plans to continue working with the Wyoming Women’s Center in the future. “Each year we get small 3- to 5-inch catfish in trade from Arkansas for stocking throughout the state in April or May. We want to continue building a working relationship with the Wyoming Women’s Center to raise a portion of these fish up to catchable size for stocking in community ponds like Sloans Lake in August when the water temperatures are still suitable,” Compton said. “With the help of the Women’s Center, we are able to stock some community ponds with catchable-size fish that are immediately available to anglers, rather than waiting for a year or more for the smaller fish to reach a catchable size after stocking.”

Compton reminds anglers that other species in the lake are doing fine and the dead catfish was an isolated incident. “Nothing is wrong with the water quality. The fish in Sloans Lake are healthy and safe to eat,” he said.

Anglers are reminded to check the 2021 Wyoming Fishing Regulations before going fishing.

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March 31, 2021 at 11:27PM
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Catfish at Sloans Lake died by temperature shock says Game and Fish - Buckrail

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Five ways fish are more like humans than you realise - The Conversation UK

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You’ve probably heard that fish have a three-second memory, or that they’re incapable of feeling pain. Neither of these statements is true, but it’s telling that these misconceptions don’t crop up for other vertebrates.

Perhaps it’s because fish appear so different from us. They don’t seem to have any capacity for facial expression, or vocal communication – and we don’t even breathe the same air. Collectively, these differences put fish so far away from humans that we struggle to relate to them.

But when scientists have conducted experiments to discover more about fish – including their neurobiology, their social lives and mental faculties – they’ve found time and time again that fish are more complex than they’re often given credit for. Above all, fish seem to have more in common with us than we might like to admit.

In my research I often work with zebrafish – the aquatic lab rat. Here are five fascinating things that I, and other researchers, have discovered about them and their kind.

1. Fish lose their memory as they age

As humans age, our memories decline. Scientists work to understand the biology of cognitive decline in order to predict how we can help people age better and develop treatments for conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

In humans, working memory – the mental process that we use to carry out everyday tasks – declines as we get older. My colleagues and I found something similar when we observed zebrafish at six and 24 months of age swimming around in a Y-shaped maze.

We found that the older fish struggled to navigate the maze compared to younger ones. What’s more, when we designed a virtual version of the task for humans, we found that people in their 70s showed exactly the same deficits as fish.

The navigating abilities of fish can deteriorate after a certain age. Ethan Daniels/Shutterstock

2. Fish like the same drugs as humans

I mean, they really like them. Biologists Tristan Darland and John Dowling at Harvard University in the US found that zebrafish particularly like cocaine, which they tested by dangling the drug in their tank when the fish hung around a certain visual pattern. This preference for cocaine was heritable too. Offspring of fish with a penchant for the drug passed it on to their children – a pattern reported in humans.

Zebrafish also show patterns of compulsive drug-seeking seen in people suffering with addiction. Caroline Brennan’s research group at Queen Mary University of London found that fish would put up with being chased with a net if it meant gaining access to cocaine.

Working with Brennan’s group and Pfizer, we tested a range of other drugs – opiates, stimulants, alcohol and nicotine – to see what zebrafish can tell us about the abuse potential of new drugs (something that has to happen before they’re licensed). It turned out they loved them all.

Except, that is, THC – the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis. It seems zebrafish wouldn’t make great hippies.

3. Fish remember their friends

You probably already know that fish are social animals. They can synchronise their behaviour in schools so that each individual mirrors the movements of their neighbour and the group appears to move as one.

What you probably didn’t know is that individual fish can also recognise another fish from their own group (by smell, typically). Young fish prefer their own relatives, but as they get older, adult females prefer familiar females but unfamiliar males. This ultimately helps to prevent inbreeding.

Fish retain this memory for 24 hours, preferring to approach a new fish rather than the last one they spent time with. This shows that their social memories are strong, blowing the whole “three-second memory” rumour out of the water.

Fish can recognise friends and family. Bignai/Shutterstock

4. Fish feel pain

They really do. In 2003, biologists Victoria Braithwaite and Lynne Sneddon, then at the University of Edinburgh and the Roslin institute, put acid in the lips of trout. The fish showed classic pain responses – moving away, rubbing their lips on the bottom of the tank, increasing their respiration – which disappeared completely once the fish were given a painkiller.

The question remains though, how do fish experience pain? What does pain mean to the animal? Pain is not just the perception of a physical event, such as stubbing your toe. It is often an emotional experience too. Some researchers think fish don’t experience pain in this way, essentially arguing that although they feel pain, they aren’t mentally capable of having an emotional response to that pain, and so their suffering should concern us less. This is because, they argue, fish lack parts of the brain that, in humans and other higher vertebrates, are associated with the mental experience of pain.

But this argument is no longer so convincing. Decades of work show that all manner of shapes, sizes and organisations of brain exist in nature, and that many complex behaviours arise in animals lacking the apparent brain structures that have been linked, in humans and other primates, to these higher processes.

In fact, it seems that brain structures themselves may be less important than we thought, so fish could have a more sophisticated experience of the world than we imagine, albeit using a brain that’s quite different to ours.

5. Fish can be impatient

In my lab, we’re interested in something called impulse control. This is someone’s ability to plan their behaviour and wait for the best time to perform it. Poor impulse control is a trait seen in people with a range of psychiatric conditions, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, addiction, or obsessive compulsive disorder.

We trained zebrafish over several weeks in a series of trials using a purpose-built tank. In each trial, fish had to wait for a light to come on at the opposite end of the tank before they could swim into a chamber to get food. If they swam in early, they were disappointed with no food, and had to start all over again. We saw huge variation in their ability or desire to wait. Some fish were very impatient, while others didn’t mind waiting. We even found that a drug used to treat ADHD also makes fish less impatient.

So, perhaps next time you see a fish you’ll think twice before dismissing it as a waterborne automaton, fit only for tartare sauce and mushy peas.

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March 31, 2021 at 08:46PM
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COLLEGE MEN'S SOCCER: Former Wisconsin Dells standout Fish gets valuable training time in Spain - WiscNews

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Ben Fish charges out to smother a ball as Stevens Point Pacelli's Mason Schlagenhaft flies over during a WIAA Division 4 regional semifinal game in 2019. The former Wisconsin Dells standout goalie is in his freshman season at Menlo College, an National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics school in Atherton, Calif.

Fish, seen leaping to grab a corner kick during a Capitol Conference game in 2019, spent his fall in Mallorca, Spain training under the International Soccer Academy.

Sean Davis

The COVID-19 pandemic has given everyone opportunities to broaden their horizons.

Whether it be picking up a new sport or hobby, developing a new skill or honing an already existing one. Travelling, especially out of the United States, on the other hand hasn’t been as common.

Former Wisconsin Dells soccer goalkeeper Ben Fish was among the lucky few to get to experience all of the above. After having his fall season at Menlo College, an NAIA school in Atherton, Cali., canceled, the Chiefs standout got the chance to spend part of his fall training under the International Soccer Academy on Mallorca, an island off the coast of Spain.

“It was like a transition period,” Fish said in a phone interview of his time overseas. “The division and level and I was at in high school is a lower division in Wisconsin, compared to what California is.

“So to be able to go to Spain and see how people play on a world scale, instead of just a Midwest United States scale, was really good for me to see. It upped my performance and led for me to come into college this year, and it’s been really productive.

Actually getting over to Spain however, took some convincing according to Fish due to the weight of spending two-and-a-half months in Europe. Like the homestretch of his second semester at Wisconsin Dells, Fish’s foray into college, like much of the country, was to begin virtually.

Admittedly, Fish said being out of an actual classroom was detrimental to his learning, making the option to spend a gap semester in Spain much more viable.

“I’m a person where it’s kind of hard and difficult to pay attention to things when I’m not forced to sit in a class and do something,” he said. “The aspect of online classes was really hard for me to figure out at first, so my parents and I thought it would be beneficial if I took a gap semester and it just fit perfectly for the situation to pop up, and everything worked out.”

Fish, along with teammates from across the United States ranging from 16-24 years old, embarked for Spain in early October and ate, slept and breathed soccer until mid-December. Unlike some of his teammates however, Fish didn’t continue his academics during his time on Mallorca.

However, his schedule remained impeccably busy, beginning with an 8 a.m. training session daily, Monday-Saturday. That flowed right into a tactics/performance session before lunch and either a second session or team activity “to build team chemistry.”

On top of that, Fish said the team scrimmage or game depending on the day against a local team “at least once or twice a week.” The team also had three games over the course of his time there, including against UD Ibiza as well as CF Platges de Calviá, which is based out of Magaluf.

“Those were pretty big games,” Fish said, noting he made a penalty kick save during the match against UD Ibiza. “I think I’ll hold onto that memory for a long time.”

Rising to the next level

The big stage is nothing new to Fish, as he previously played in the United States national club tournament, but his time in Spain was even more difficult.

“The club level was already three or four steps up from the high school team, so it just gave me a lot more clarity in terms of the talent scale and what the overall performance would be like for an average high school player to people in Spain who actually get paid to do this,” he said.

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Fish also got some insight as to what it was like to train under someone. According to Fish, among his teammates was a trio of recent college graduates, and among them a 24-year old goalkeeper. And after starting between the pipes since his freshman season with the Chiefs, it was a brand new experience being lower on the depth chart.

“So for two-and-a-half months I was playing under an older keeper, so the knowledge he gave me, as well as knowing there’s an age gap but I can see the ability that I could be better than that person at that age, it just gave me a better look into myself and that I can push myself further,” he said.

There was plenty of other sage advice from the team’s goalkeeper coach, Holger Gehrke. The 60-year old from Berlin played 17 years of professional soccer in German, including 86 appearances in the Bundesliga — Germany’s top soccer league — for FC Schalke 04, MSV Duisburg and the now defunct SpVgg Blau-Weiß 1890 Berlin.

On top of his playing career, which totaled 242 appearances in all, Gehrke spent the 2006 season as manager of 1.FC Köln.

“All of the knowledge and everything he gave me, every day, was stuff I got to take with me and what I take to practice with me in college,” Fish said.

Finding the right head space

On top of just his goalie work, Fish said a lot of his preparation at with the ISA was on the mental aspect of things. During his high school career, Fish admitted that he “put a lot of weight on my shoulders trying to perform a certain way.” Those lofty expectations were broken down during his time in Spain however.

“They did a lot of prep of just knowing your talent, and performing at the level you know you can perform at, so not expecting too much out of yourself and letting yourself down,” he said. “They did that and mental exercises, as well as a lot of calls with different people. It helped us out with coaching us through our mental preparation for the games as well.”

Coupled with his actual training, Fish got the chance to take in the Spanish culture during his first-ever trip to Europe. While he did take four years of Spanish at Wisconsin Dells, Fish said there were “a lot of dots missing and things I couldn’t catch up on,” having learned “Mexican-style Spanish” in high school.

In his off time, he was able to venture into the resort city of Palma, while also seeing a stark contrast in living conditions to the United States.

“Walking through downtown and seeing it comparatively to where I had been before, it just sunk in because there were some places in Spain that weren’t as financially sound as in America,” he said. “That really opened my eyes to different cultures, as well as seeing other styles of soccer.”

The overall experience has Fish off to a strong start with the Oaks, despite Menlo College opting out of the Golden State Athletic Conference season this spring. Fish said the team is playing three unofficial games this spring ahead a full return next fall.

He’s also drawn strong reviews from the Oaks’ coaching staff so far as well.

“My coaches have definitely told me it’s not like I’m performing to the usual freshman standard, where you’re lagging behind some people. He said I’ve connected and fit in very well,” he said.

It’s certainly strengthened Fish’s thoughts on the future. While he plans to major in marketing, Fish knows that can change, but one things that hasn’t altered is his desire to stay on the pitch after college.

“I definitely plan on extending my connections I have and created through the program, and I’m looking to play semi-pro in the summers during college as well,” he said.

Follow Sean Davis on Twitter @SDavis_PDR or contact him at 608-745-3512.

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Here’s when you can fish license free in Florida - WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando

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Floridians and visitors will be able to fish without license in the Sunshine State during five periods of time in 2021.

The first license-free freshwater fishing dates fall next week on April 3 and 4, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission website.

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“License-free fishing days provide an excellent opportunity for those who don’t yet have a fishing license to experience fishing, take youth fishing, or for avid anglers to introduce a friend to fishing without having to purchase a license,” FWC said on its website.

The full schedule is as follows according to the FWC website:

• April 3-4: License-free freshwater fishing
• June 12-13: License-free freshwater and saltwater fishing
• Sept. 4: License-free saltwater fishing
• Nov. 27: License-free saltwater fishing

These license-free fishing days apply to residents and non-residents.

All bag limits, seasons and size restrictions still apply on the license-free fishing day.

For more information, click here.

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April 01, 2021 at 02:01AM
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Crossroads to Host EGGStravaganza, Fish Tales Lecture - Door County Pulse

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This girl is trying – unsuccessfully – to break an egg. (It’s harder than it seems!) Submitted.

Crossroads at Big Creek, 2041 Michigan St. in Sturgeon Bay, in collaboration with the Door County Historical Society, will host EGGStravaganza on April 3. During this annual celebration of eggs, kids may hunt for more than 1,000 eggs, 12-3 pm. 

At 1 pm and 2 pm, Crossroads will offer outdoor demonstrations and experiments focusing on the strength of an egg shell. Meet at the Collins Learning Center’s garden to attend this free program. Masks are required. 

The Fish Tales lecture series will continue April 8, 7 pm, with “Great Lakes Mass Marking Program for Trout and Salmon: Better Fisheries through Better Science.” Chuck Bronte, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service fisheries biologist, will discuss how the mass marking technology that has tagged every Chinook salmon and lake trout stocked into Lake Michigan since 2010 has supported and improved fish management.

To join the virtual program, offered in collaboration with the Door County Library, visit doorcountylibrary.org/events, or request a link by emailing [email protected] with “Fish Tales” in the subject line.

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March 31, 2021 at 11:02PM
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Great Falls angler lands record-breaking fish - Great Falls Tribune

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David Murray, Great Falls Tribune Published 2:35 p.m. MT March 31, 2021

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Great Falls angler Jacob Bernhardt holds his state record longnose sucker caught in the Missouri River.

 (Photo: Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks)

For the fifth time in less than a year, Montana will add a new state record fish to its books.

The latest fish is a longnose sucker, reeled in by Jacob Bernhardt of Great Falls on March 26. According to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, Bernhardt was fishing on the Missouri River in Cascade County when he landed the 3.42 pound sucker. Bernhardt's catch bested the prior record of 3.27 pounds set by Ray Quigley in May 1988 while fishing on the Marias River.

The longnose sucker is a bottom-feeding fish, eating aquatic plants, algae, and small invertebrates. It's flesh is typically white and flaky, but bony. People frequently eat longnose sucker fillets, but the fish is commonly used as bait to catch larger and more desirable species such as bass, walleye, trout, northern pike, muskellunge and burbot. The average weight of a mature longnose sucker in Montana is one to two pounds.

The past year has been a remarkable one for sport fishing in Montana, with four other anglers reeling in record fish. These include a 32.05 pound Chinook salmon reeled in by Greg Haug from Fort Peck Reservoir on Aug. 16, 2020; a 7.84 pound smallmouth bass also caught in Fort Peck Reservoir on Oct. 3 by Theron Thompson; a 1.91 pound yellow bullhead pulled out of Tongue River Reservoir by Roberta Legge on Dec. 17; and a monster 32.42 pound brown trout landed on the shore of the Marias River on March 3, 2021 by Robbie Dockter.

With a total of 91 native and introduced fish species found in Montana, interest in fish records has increased in recent years. Anglers who think they may have caught a state record fish should keep the following things in mind:

• To prevent loss of weight, do not clean or freeze the fish. Keep the fish cool — preferably on ice.
• Take a picture of the fish.
• Weigh the fish on a certified scale (found in grocery store or hardware store, etc.), witnessed by a store employee or other observer. Obtain a weight receipt and an affidavit from the store personnel if no FWP official is present. Measure the length and girth.
• Contact the nearest FWP office to have the fish positively identified by a Fisheries Biologist or Manager.

A partial list of record catches in Montana is given below. Bold type indicates the species is native to Montana. A complete list of record breaking fish is maintained by Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks and is available on FWP’s website at https://ift.tt/3cBOfwj.

David Murray is Natural Resources/Agriculture reporter for the Great Falls Tribune. To contact him with comments or story ideas, email dmurray@greatfallstribune.com or call (406) 403-3257. To preserve quality, in-depth journalism in northcentral Montana, subscribe to the Great Falls Tribune.

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April 01, 2021 at 03:35AM
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Rapids return means fish returns - Great Lakes Echo

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Students from nearby Lake Superior State University fish off the side of the newly built bridge into the Little Rapids. Image: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries

By Taylor Haelterman

The St. Marys River lost over half of its rapids in the last century, mostly due to artificial structures used for navigation.

Restoring one of the rapids is helping diverse fish species recover in the river that connects lakes Superior and Huron, according to a recent study.

Varied habitat is crucial for sustaining fish and increasing their diversity, according to the study published in Restoration Ecology. Two years after the restoration of what is called the river’s  Little Rapids, researchers found almost double the number of young fish at the site.

The St. Marys River’s Little Rapids before the restoration project began. Image: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries

The flow of water into the Little Rapids was mostly closed off by a roadway built across the river to push water into a navigation channel for commercial ships. To restore the rapids the roadway was removed and replaced with a bridge in a $9.4 million project.

The importance of the rapids is about habitat diversity, not lack of habitat, said Alejandro Moctezuma, an author of the study.

“It’s not that all species prefer rapids habitat, it’s that some species prefer rapids habitats,” said Moctezuma, who is a researcher at the Lake Superior State University Center for Freshwater Research and Education.

Some fish like rapids because the material at the bottom of the river is ideal for laying eggs  and for those eggs to develop into adult fish, he said. The increased number of young fish counted at the rapids after the restoration is proof of increased spawning at the site.

The newly built bridge over the St. Marys River is the only road that connects to the island. Image: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries

Moctezuma said one of the most interesting parts of the research is that the rapids area is still in transition.

“Right now, we’re still seeing some changes in the community and we’re pretty excited to see what else is going to happen, if it’s going to change and if we’re going to see some new fishes that we’ve never seen spawn there,” Moctezuma said.

When the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association funded the project, it hoped to see an increase of native fish, said Terry Heatlie, a habitat restoration specialist for the agency.

Researchers have already seen an increase in non-native fish like Atlantic and pink salmon but hope to see whitefish, lake sturgeon and walleye eventually find the habitat, he said.

Eric Ellis, the habitat restoration program manager for the Great Lakes Commission, said the ecological and recreational benefits of returning native fish was part of the reason it funded the project, too.

The bridge over the Little Rapids during construction before it was completed in 2017. Image: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries

“Rapids habitat is not very common in the Great Lakes, and a lot of different species rely on it for various stages of their lifecycle,” Ellis said. “And some of these species are really declining—whitefish and lake sturgeon are two that come to mind. Also, species that are very important to recreational fisheries, like pink salmon and Atlantic salmon.”

The new bridge has pedestrian access separate from the road with cutouts for people to fish and view the river. The build also includes parking lots at each end so the area is more usable for the public, Heatlie said.

The St. Marys River project is a partnership to restore one of the Areas of Concern, the officially designated toxic hotspots in the Great Lakes region.

The Little Rapids restoration was the project that removed both the “loss of fish and wildlife habitat” and the “degradation of fish and wildlife populations” categories from the list of impairments to tackle on the river before it can be removed from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Areas of Concern list

There are still three categories left before the river can be removed: restrictions on fish and wildlife consumption, degradation of plants and animals at the bottom of the river and fish tumors or other deformities.

The Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration work together on other habitat restoration projects throughout the Great Lakes region.

It is challenging to restore large rivers, and freshwater restoration usually focuses on small streams, so this research is particularly important, according to the study.

Moctezuma said the project is ongoing. Researchers will continue monitoring the river into 2021 with plans for more publications.

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Dazzling underwater photos capture new views and scientific detail of fish larvae - Science News Magazine

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The open ocean is a veritable soup of tiny critters, including newborn fishes. It’s hard to learn about them, though, because they are mere millimeters long and semitransparent. When netted from research vessels, their delicate body parts may get mashed or removed. Now, a partnership between scientists and scuba divers is giving researchers fresh perspectives on the secrets of larval fishes.

Underwater photos taken at night — when larval fishes migrate to within 200 meters of the ocean surface — reveal colors, body structures and behaviors that could never be seen in preserved specimens. Examining those same fishes back in the lab lets ichthyologists match the photographed larval fishes to known species, researchers report March 30 in Ichthyology & Herpetology.

Scientists at the Smithsonian Institution and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration hatched a collaboration in 2016 with blackwater divers — who enter the ocean in the dark of night — to photograph larval fishes and collect them as specimens. With lights in hand, divers Jeff Milisen and Sarah Mayte snapped up-close photos of nearly 80 larval fishes, then gingerly captured and shipped them to scientists to be studied alongside their mugshots.

“Fish larvae that looked utterly drab as specimens have turned out to have brilliantly colored markings and fantastic structures,” says Ai Nonaka, a larval fish expert at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.

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Fragile appendages

Specialists like Nonaka sort out larval fish identities by looking at body shapes and minuscule features through microscopes and by analyzing DNA of larval tissue. Unlike their swimming parents, fish larvae drift on currents, and their strange body parts — adaptations for a drifting lifestyle — make larvae look nothing like adults. 

“Larval fishes are extremely difficult to identify,” says Dave Johnson, an ichthyologist also at the Smithsonian. Scientists have mistakenly given larval fishes new scientific names, not recognizing them as early life stages of known species.

Because larval fishes are soft and fragile, they don’t travel well. Larvae lose fins and other delicate structures that evoke their behavior. The scalloped ribbonfish (Zu cristatus) larva, for example, has spaghetti-like ornamental fins sprinkled with white spots that get broken off on specimens. The way these ornamental structures appear to flow out like tentacles in the images of wild larvae suggests the larvae could be jellyfish mimics, say the study authors.

Scalloped ribbonfish (Zu cristatus) larva in the oceanJ. Milisen

Scalloped ribbonfish (Z. cristatus) larva specimenA. Nonaka/Smithsonian NMNH

The trailing guts of a barbeled dragonfish (Aristostomias sp.) larva get mashed or broken off altogether, but the undersea photo reveals it coiled up into a tight corkscrew. Nonaka and Johnson confess that scientists don’t yet understand the function of the trailing guts seen in some larval fishes. One theory is that exposed innards might somehow increase digestion efficiency, while another suggests they could confuse predators.

Barbeled dragonfish (Aristostomias sp.) larva in the oceanJ. Milisen

Barbeled dragonfish (Aristostomias sp.) larva specimenA. Nonaka/Smithsonian NMNH

Hidden colors

Ethanol preservation of specimens repels bacteria and fungi, but leaches out colors. The three-spot righteye flounder (Samariscus triocellatus) larva, bone white as a specimen, is bright blue. Its dorsal and anal fins are fringed with white, and rows of yellow spots dot the base of the fin rays. While their function has yet to be studied, it’s possible that these borders create a flickering visual effect to help the fish escape from predators, suggests Geoff Moser, a retired NOAA fisheries biologist not involved with the study. Called “flicker fusion,” it’s been examined in other animals such as striped snakes as a form of camouflage on the go.

Three-spot righteye flounder (Samariscus triocellatus) larva in the oceanJ. Milisen

Three-spot righteye flounder (S. triocellatus) larva specimenA. Nonaka/Smithsonian NMNH

The deep-sea tripodfish (Bathymicrops sp.) is plain and pale when prepared as a specimen and uniform brown as an adult fish — not exactly a looker. But the larva appears to have donned a clown costume with large white and orange polka dots flecked on its otherwise blue-hued body. In an ethanol specimen, its pectoral fins look soft and ghostly, whereas the living larva sports flamboyant, spiky and spotted fins. The function of the coloration is unknown. says Nonaka, but it could also be a flicker fusion trick.

Deep-sea tripodfish (Bathymicrops sp.) larva in the oceanJ. Milisen

Deep-sea tripodfish (Bathymicrops sp.) larva specimenA. Nonaka/Smithsonian NMNH

Fishy behavior

In larval specimens, scientists can observe some structures as evidence of behaviors. But undersea observations of wild larval fishes can show what they’re really up to when they are alive. The larva of the barred conger (Ariosoma fasciatum) is super flat, quite unlike the cylindrical adult. Yet a photo shows that it swims like an adult barred conger, by undulating its long body laterally. So, while it’s more svelte as a larva, it’s got some of the adult movements down.

Barred conger (Ariosoma fasciatum) larva in the oceanJ. Milisen

Barred conger (A. fasciatum) larva specimenA. Nonaka/Smithsonian NMNH

Undersea observations can also reveal associations larvae have with other marine animals, including other tiny critters that also ride the currents. For example, a petite Pacific pomfret (Brama japonica) larva was caught on camera riding on a jellyfish. That’s a discovery that the study authors were unwilling to even speculate about. Although larval fishes have been seen taking shelter in the tentacles of jellies, hitching a ride on top of a jellyfish seems like an odd twist on that behavior.

A pacific pomfret (Brama japonica) larva (pictured from three angles) in the ocean, riding a jellyfishJ. Milisen (photos); E. Otwell/Science News (collage)

Pacific pomfret (Brama japonica) larva specimenA. Nonaka/Smithsonian NMNH

Each larval fish that gets identified by scientists sets the stage for conservation. By knowing where larval fishes of particular species live, researchers can better advise on how to manage the ocean ecosystems the fishes depend on for survival.

Conservation planning also requires knowledge of behavior (SN: 12/30/10). So photographing larval fishes and making their specimens available for identification means researchers get a handle on fishes’ behavioral adaptations for survival in the wild.

“I’ve been working with fish larvae for over 40 years,” says Moser. “The chance to see these larvae in their environment was a wonderful advance in our scientific endeavors.”

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