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ou might first notice it at night. Stand on the Town Dock or along the wall on Hodges Street and look out on the harbor. Eddies form here and sworls there, and shiny blasts erupt a few inches above the surface, then tuck back under and emerge again a few yards over.

The harbor is full of bait-sized fish. Residents on some local creeks are noticing the same thing. The fish are mostly menhaden and they’re there night and day, along with smaller populations of minnow and mullet.

What lurks just below the surface: lots of bait. Menhaden are thick in Oriental’s harbor this summer.

Fisherman and presence on the harbor, Bill Sternberg says it’s a banner year for the menhaden, also known, at this stage of their lives, as ‘peanuts’.

Need bait? Just toss a net in the harbor and, as Bill demonstrated one morning this week, you’ll have scads of flopping fish in one go.

A toss of the net….

.. gets you plenty of menhaden for bait.

While Oriental’s harbor and nearby creeks have a surplus of menhaden, there are far fewer than usual in other places, such as the waters near Morehead City.

Bill Sternberg says it’s a cyclical thing. It also appears to be random — based not on what the conditions are right now, but what they were a year ago in our brackish waters.

Sweet Water Charters Captain Mark Hoff says that it “could have a lot to do with the lack of rain we had last year. It made for exellent breeding since the water never got too fresh.”

A healthy population of menhaden up close to the Town Dock.

Menhaden populations vary from year to year, according to another charter captain, George Beckwith. “The real story is that these menhaden are very healthy. Ten years ago, they would have been full of sores.” (Beckwith refers to the massive fish kill on the Neuse in 1995.) “You really get an idea of how many menhaden are in the river when they are all floating dead.”

Menhaden near the Town Dock at twilight

The young menhaden in Oriental’s harbor are very much alive. One-time charter captain and Tarpon Tournament winner, Derek Jordan says the menhaden are “filter fish” and swim along with their mouths open. “They eat,’ he says, “all the time.”

They circle to scare up food. Plankton is their food of choice. Derek says they don’t eat other fish. But that courtesy isn’t rewarded the other way. Menhaden are themselves eaten by bigger fish.

That means that the little menhaden could attract larger fish — such as flounder, trout, blue fish, drum and tarpon — to local waters. That might seem to benefit recreational anglers fishing here. But having all those bait fish in the water can be a double-edged sword according to local fishermen.

“On one hand it will draw more fish to the area such as drum, speckled trout and so on.” Mark Hoff says, On the other hand, he says, those big fish “will be fat and happy and won’t have to work hard for a meal. The fishing should be good, but you need to really work to get them to bite.”

Bill Sternberg

The fisherman’s hooked bait will have to compete with the swarms of bait fish that come with no strings attached. As Bill Sternberg describes the situation, “It’s like bringing a sandwich to a banquet.”

Derek Jordan agrees about the effect of so much menhaden. “It makes it hard to catch fish simply because they can eat whenever they want to. But at the same time….it’s better that they are here than not.” He allows a smile and says that it means the fisherman has to find ways to get the fish’s attention.

The baby menhaden have been in local waters for months. But Bill Sternberg says in their smaller form, they weren’t as noticeable. In their adolescence, they are. They won’t be there forever, though. By fall, if not sooner, the time may come when they find it necessary to seek bigger waters such as the Neuse River and the Pamlico Sound. According to Derek Jordan, they tend to leave all at once. One day they’ll be there, cheek by gill in the water, the next they’re gone, about a third of the way thru their three-year life cycle.

It’s raining menhaden at Oriental’s harbor.

If you want to see them, the Town Dock is a good vantage point. The fish were especially apparent on a recent night, leaping out of the water in to the light. But you can see evidence of them in the daytime too, if you look for the pulsing circles of motion. One morning early this week, 17 of the circles, each a school of menhaden were counted.

Posted Thursday July 17, 2008 by Melinda Penkava

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