Sea Lice

Schoolie fishing was hot
and heavy again tonight. All
the fish were loaded with
sea lice.

Many experienced fishermen will tell you that migrating stripers pick up this sea lice from the bottom way out in deep water.  These orange/brown creatures that look a lot like tiny shrimp cling to the stripers' bodies as they migrate toward the shore.  It's a phenomenon we see a lot with migrating stripers along the oceanfront in the springtime.

Sea lice covered all the schoolies that I landed tonight.  It's an
indication that these are all fresh, migrating fish.

Several weeks ago I was catching a lot of holdovers in the backwaters.  Not one of them had sea lice on them, an idication that they were holdovers. Today's fish, all fresh migrating fish, were loaded with the lice.