Bay Cold Snap Threatens Speckled Trout

 Annapolis Capital Gazette, Frigid temperatures threaten game fish such as speckled seatrout

The most recent polar vortex squatting on the Chesapeake Bay region may be a godsend to waterfowlers who can keep their impoundments open or hunters hardy (and hopefully safety conscience) enough with the proper gear to venture out on open water to duck hunt. However, the current state of the bay is no bueno for pickerel and panfish anglers.

Understandably, most of us aren’t thinking about warmer weather game fish species like puppy drum or speckled (spotted) seatrout. But these intense, prolonged cold snaps can have dire — and even deadly — effects on many Chesapeake Bay creatures, including popular game fish such as speckled trout.

This week, North Carolina’s Division of Marine Fisheries closed the harvest for both commercial and recreational spotted seatrout harvest until June 15. I reached out to David Sneed, a friend in North Carolina who also heads up the state chapter of the Coastal Conservation Association. He told me that for the past two weeks there have been widespread cold stun events, which are sudden. Severe drops in water temperature, often combined with prolonged periods of cold weather, not only can make fish sluggish but are sometimes lethal.

The Tarheel State, as well as South Carolina and Georgia, have long-term data that indicates that cold stun events can significantly impact spotted seatrout populations. North Carolina officials say they are still receiving and verifying more cold stun reports and collecting associated environmental data.

And they’ll continue to capture as much information as they can to capture the scale of the cold stun events. Why? To assist in their management efforts to protect the stock, basically give surviving fish a chance to spawn before harvest reopens. Peak spawning occurs from May through June.

I saw a picture on Facebook recently that purported to be cold stunned Specks washed up on a beach near Virginia Beach. I don't doubt it (much). It's a well known phenomenon. It often happens when a source of warm water shuts off in cold weather, like a power plant.  Fortunately, they never shut down the nuke.

Speckled Trout are sort of a mystery fish in Chesapeake Bay. The appear suddenly in the shallow waters starting about late April, and stay around until about Oct, and disappear again. Where they go in the meantime is a question. Do they just stop biting lures? Do they migrate to deeper, warmer waters (where they also must not bite, but they could be some of those non-catchable marks we see on fish finders in winter). Do they migrate out to sea? Certainly a number of them seek shelter in the warm-water outflow of Calvert Cliffs Nuclear plant, where we catch a few, but not a lot.