Crystal Beach pier dive II - 8/18/05

[SeaYoda]

I decided to check out the conditions of the Gulf on the way home from work today. The color was great and the winds and waves didn't look too bad. I went home and got my gear and headed toward the pier. I had to park across the street but it's still not as long a walk as the jetties. The wind and waves had picked up a little in my absence but were not wild. I hit the water about 2:15 PM and it was hot in the shallows - 92 degrees. It cooled down to about 89 as I got to depth at 7 feet. The viz was less than last time but OK. There was a hazy quality to the water similar to a halocline - pictures farther than a few feet looked like they were out of focus. Small fish were everywhere. Crabs were out and about too. I was taking a movie of a crab when a big flounder swam out from under me - I was glad it wasn't that barracuda from last time . The waves made picture taking a little rough so not many keepers this trip - here are some that you can at least recognize what I shot. The flounder montage is from the movie at low resolution, it's enough to see his size and color.

 

[jviehe]

WHy is he swimming on his side?

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Thanks for the report SeaYoda. You don't happen to know what kind of fish those are in your first photo do you? I've seen the silver ones with the yellow tails at the jetties several times and the striped yellow/white fish too. I never knew what they were though...

 

[Rick Murchison]

Thanks for the report SeaYoda. You don't happen to know what kind of fish those are in your first photo do you? I've seen the silver ones with the yellow tails at the jetties several times and the striped yellow/white fish too. I never knew what they were though...

The silver ones are Yellow Jack - commonly called hardtails (along with Blue Runners).
The striped ones look like Sergeant Majors...
Rick

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

D'Oh! I had been calling some other fish hardtails, now I'm really screwed up

Thanks for the clarifications

 

[Rick Murchison]

D'Oh! I had been calling some other fish hardtails, now I'm really screwed up

Thanks for the clarifications

Blue Runners (another small jack) are also "hardtails." So you may very well be right.
Rick

 

[Rick Murchison]

Whoa! I started doing a little research on what's called a hardtail and ran across this statement:
"Blue runner, hard tail jack, yellow jack, yellow mackerel and runner are all Caranx crysos"
Now I need to get back to the books.
I'll let you know what I find.
Rick

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

LOL Stupid common names!

 

[SeaYoda]

The fish that I had been calling hardtails have a yellow tail, just the tail, but they are longer and skinnier than jacks. These are jack shaped and have yellow all the way up to the dorsal fin.

Fishes of the Caribbean and Adjacent Waters 3rd edition (ReefNet Inc.) says about the yellow jack:

" A moderately compressed and deep body with nearly symmetrical dorsal and ventral profiles similar to C. crysos (blue runner) but without the dark spot on the opercle. --- The fins range from bright yellow(caudal) to pale yellow (the rest) ..."

Here is a closer picture to help ID them: