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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMay 26, 2005 - Saga of the cinder wormServing Long Island's North Fork since 1857 Saga of the cinder worm Focus on Nature By Paul Stoutenburgh One never knows what will show up when you take a short evening walk down to the creek. Our dock is always a good place to head for. From there you can watch the seasons come and go just as you can tell the seasons by the foliage on the trees. Right now the tall thatch grass is starting to show its long, slender blades as they push up through last year's decaying mass of debris. It's the decayed plant material and silt - laden detritus that eventually create the nutrients that will flow out into our creeks and bays, which the minute plankton feed on. In turn the smaller killifish feed on the plankton, eventually becoming food for the larger fish — and who eats the larger fish? We do. Three cheers for our wetlands. When conditions are right in the middle of May, there is a 'cinder worm hatch' in many of our creeks, which is taken advantage of by striped bass of all sizes. Times /Review photo by Barbara Stoutenburgh Our walk was at sunset and the sky was aglow with color. The cool southwest wind had slackened off so we had time to linger and check over the goings -on in the creek. Far to the north we could see two indistinguishable spots of white in the evening light. It must be the pair of swans that has just recently brought off two fluffy gray signets. The parents will soon be teaching these new arrivals how to fend for themselves. With their vegetarian diet, it will be the sea lettuce they're after. It's in all our creeks. Right now the parents, with their long necks, can reach down to the bottom and bring up dripping green sheets of this nutritious food. Some will be passed on to the hungry young, who stay close by for these easy handouts. The tide was at its flood stage, so the water lay motionless. It was a special time to be by the water. Above, the new moon was trying to show itself. As we looked into the black water surrounding the dock our eyes caught glimpses of small objects moving in rapid spurts. What could they be? They were reddish - orange in color and were about 1 1/2 to two inches in length. They weren't fish but looked more like some sort of worm. As our eyes caught on to what we were looking for, we began to see more and more of these worm -like bodies shooting this way and that, only to disappear below. Our flashlight revealed that they seemed to be propelled by a series of what looked like feathery legs along the length of the body. I can't remember ever seeing anything like that before. Something was hatching out or a spawning ritual was taking place before our very eyes. Barbara, being a bit more agile than I, found an old plastic container and worked at trying to scoop one up. There were so many of these darting creatures, she couldn't miss, and as a matter of fact she got two of them, one twice the size of the other. I had read and heard that when conditions of water temperature, flood tide and a new moon all come together, the stage is set for one of nature's secrets to be performed. The Suffolk Times I Saga of the cinder worm Evidently we had all the ingredients that produced this grand underwater spectacle.We'd have to go back home and see if any of our books could tell us what we were seeing. Back home with our two captives and a bright light we could clearly see the filament - looking legs, a dark section at the end and a sort of head up front with its two very fine feelers. They swam round and round in their new clear -glass home. They looked somewhat like the worms we used to use for bait. As we were admiring our find, friends dropped in, so we set aside our captives. As soon as our friends left, we went back to our whirling worms. To our surprise the longest one with the black section at the end lay on the bottom of the beaker, its black section depleted. The shorter, all -red one still moved around (could this be the male ?), but most exciting was that there were hundreds upon hundreds of tiny, and I mean tiny, capsules of eggs, distributed throughout the column of water. What had happened? Had the big worm (the female ?) deposited her eggs and was now in the throes of dying? Somewhat like some salmon do? We'd have to wait and see what comes from our research. Well, you can't expect a home library to have books on everything, especially when comes to swimming worms. We tried the computer and that gave us some information, but we still were looking for more in -depth material on our worms. Seeing all the swimming worms, the thought came to me that there must be fish there feeding on them. To see if my idea that something should be taking advantage of all the swimming worms, I'd try to catch one tomorrow. The next night Barbara and I again went down to the dock, this time after sunset. Sure enough, our swimmers were darting all about and to our surprise fish were breaking all about us. I was right. Nature had somehow gotten the word out that there was easy picking down by the dock. I rigged my light spinning tackle with a rubber worm and started to cast. For half an hour I tried to catch whatever it was that was breaking about us. Finally 1 had a strike and I brought in a small 12 -inch striped bass, which I admired and promptly threw back. So this was what was enjoying the spoils of our creek. The next day I met my friend Dick and asked him about the wiggly worms that were hatching out around our dock. "Oh, well those are cinder worms. They come out when the water temperature is just right and there's a new moon." This was the best information we could find, far better than our books and the computer, which spoke only about the fishing aspect using artificial worms to catch bass. It was a fun experience for both Barbara and me. How was it I wasn't introduced to cinder worms before this? Surely I've been around long enough. Perhaps its because I'm not a striped bass fisherman, because from what I hear cinder worms and striped bass go together. Around here worms like this have also been known as sandworms. This is a common name to a lot of people, but for some who have come from other places, it's cinder worms to them. They speak of a "cinder worm hatch" when the fishermen get out in the middle of May to hook on to the stripers that feed on the worms. P.S. We checked with the Suffolk County Marine Environmental Learning Center at Cedar Beach in Southold and were assured we were on the right track with our identification of the worms. We thank them for their time. 2005 Times - Review Newspapers Terms of Service - Privacy Policy Page 2 of 2 http: / /www2. timesreview. com /ST /Stories/285151442475119.php 5/26/2005 The Suffolk Times • May 26, 2005 Saba of the ONE NEVER KNOWS what will show up when you take a short eve- ning walk down to the creek. Our dock is always a good place to head for. From there you can watch the seasons come and go just as you can tell the seasons by the foliage on the trees. Right now the tall thatch grass is starting to Focus show its long, slender blades ON as they push up through last NATURE year's decaying mass of debris. by Paul It's the decayed StOutenburgh plant material and silt -laden detritus that eventually create the nutrients that will flow out into our creeks and bays, which the min- ute plankton feed on. In turn the smaller killifish feed on the plank- ton, eventually becoming food for the larger fish — and who eats the larger fish? We do. Three cheers for our wetlands. Our walk was at sunset and the sky was aglow with color. The cool southwest wind had slackened off so we had time to linger and check over the goings -on in the creek. Far to the north we could see two indistinguishable spots of white in the evening light. It must be the pair of swans that has just recently brought off two fluffy gray signets. The parents will soon be teaching these new arrivals how to fend for themselves. With their vep-etarian diet, it will ciin er wo Times/Review photo by Barbara Stoutenburgh When conditions are right in the middle of May, there is a `cinder worm hatch' in many of our creeks, which is taken advantage of by striped bass of all sizes. be the sea ettuce they're after. It's in all our creeks. Right now the parents, with their long necks, can reach down to the bottom and brim up dripping green sheets of this nu- tritious food. Some will be passed on to the hungry young, who stay close by for these easy handouts. The tide was at its flood stage, so the water lay motionless. It was a special time to be by the water. Above, the new moon was trying to show itself. As we looked into the black wa- ter surrounding the dock our eyes caught glimpses of small objects moviniz in rapid spurts. What could they be? They were reddish - orange in color and were about 11/2 to twc inches in length. They weren't fish but looked more like some sort of As our eyes caught on to what w were looking for, we began to see more and more of these worm -like bodies shooting this way and that, only to disappear below. Our flash- light revealed that they seemed to be propelled by a series of what looked like feathery legs along the length of the body. I can't remem- ber ever seeing anything like that before. Something was hatching out or a spawning ritual was taking place before our very eyes. Barbara, being a bit more agile than I, found an old plastic con- tainer and worked at trying to scoop one up. There were so many of these darting creatures, she couldn't miss, and as a matter of fact she got two of them, one twice the size of the other. I had read and heard that when conditions of water temperature, flood tide and a new moon all come together, the stage is set for one of nature's secrets to be performed. Evidently we had all the ingredients that pro- duced this grand underwater spec - tacle.We'd have to go back home and see if any of our books could tell us what we were seeing. Back home with our two cap- tives and a bright light we could clearly see the filament - looking legs, a dark section at the end and a sort of head up front with its two very fine feelers. They swam round and round in their new clear -glass home. They looked somewhat like the worms we used to use for bait. As we were admiring our find, friends dropped in, so we set aside our captives. - As soon as our friendsleft, we went back to our whirling worms. To our surprise the longest one with the black section at the end lay on the bottom of the beaker, its black section depleted. The short- er, all -red one still moved around could this be the male ?), but most How was it I wasn't introduced to cinder worms before this? exciting was that there were hun- dreds upon hundreds of tiny, and I mean tiny, capsules of eggs, distrib- uted throughout the column of wa- ter. What had happened? Had the big worm (the female ?) deposited her eggs and was now in the throes of dying? Somewhat like some salmon do? We'd have to wait and see what comes from our research. Well, you can't expect a home li- brary to have books on everything, especially when it comes to swim- ming worms. We tried the computer and that gave us some information, but we still were looking for more in -depth material on our worms. Seeing all the swimming worms, the thought came to me that there must be fish there feeding on them. To see if my idea that something should be taking advantage of all the swimming worms, I'd try to catch one tomorrow. The next night Barbara and I again went down to the dock, this time after sunset. Sure enough, our swimmers were darting all about and to our surprise fish were break- ing all about us. I was right. Nature had somehow gotten the word out that there was easy picking down by the dock. I rigged my light spinning tackle with a rubber worm and started to cast. For half an hour I tried to catch whatever it was that was breaking about us. Finally I had a strike and I brought in a small 12- inch striped bass, which I admired and promptly threw back. So this was what was enjoying the spoils of our creek. The next day I met my friend Dick and asked him about the wig- gly worms that were hatching out around our dock. "Oh, well those are cinder worms. They come out when the water temperature is just right and there's a new moon." This was the best infor- mation we could find, far better than our books and the computer, which spoke only about the fishing as- pect using artificial worms to catch bass. It was a fun experience for both Barbara and me. How was it I wasn't introduced to cinder worms before this? Surely I've been around long enough. Perhaps it's because I'm not a striped bass fish- erman, because from what I hear cinder worms and striped bass go together. Around here worms like this have also been known as sand - worms. This is a common name to a lot of people, but for some who have come from other places, it's cinder worms to them. They speak of a "cinder worm hatch" when the fishermen get out in the middle of May to hook on to the stripers that feed on the worms. P.S. We checked with the Suf- folk County Marine Environmental Learning Center at Cedar Beach in Southold and were assured we were on the right track with our identi- fication of the worms. We thank them for their time.