Bl rant

[mstulb]

That makes absolutely no sense. What about the marshes on se ends of galveston bay and ne corner. Lower Laguna and Baffin have huge marshes feeding into estuary. Baffin, corpus christy, and laguna madre there salt levels stay in mid 20's. Why they have giants and we don't.

I have friends that guide in several estuary's in texas and when they come to big lake and see a weir system blocking off a natural marsh. They laugh and say only in LA can you buy a lock sytem to protect yourduck hunting.

[boatdriver]

Originally Posted by mstulb

That makes absolutely no sense. What about the marshes on se ends of galveston bay and ne corner. Lower Laguna and Baffin have huge marshes feeding into estuary. Baffin, corpus christy, and laguna madre there salt levels stay in mid 20's. Why they have giants and we don't.

I have friends that guide in several estuary's in texas and when they come to big lake and see a weir system blocking off a natural marsh. They laugh and say only in LA can you buy a lock sytem to protect yourduck hunting.

In all fairness...... Yes, there are a ton of marshes in those Texas esutaries, BUT, I can guarantee you that those marshes in TX are easily adaptive to saltwater. THe marsh behind the wiers are not even in the same class of marsh as those in TX. I was part of the CRMS project on its first 2 initial contracts. We took salinity readings back there once a month. You wouldn't imagine the range of salinities form the marsh behind T boy's wier (closest to the channel) to the salinity up near the marsh south of Commissary. Only a few miles difference, but the marsh near Bois Connie and Mangrove wiers were much more diverse in plant life as opposed to the 4-6 species of plants behind the one closest to the channel. Lack of rain is the biggest factor right now. I believe pure seawater is close to 35 ppm. Some readings back there in the brackish marshes, NOT salt marshes were reading close to 29 ppm at times. After large periods of rain, it would drop considerably. So, to compare the ecosystems in the lower to midcoast of TX to the marsh behind the wiers just isn't like an apples to apples argument. And also, they have longer fish over there than we do. Can you imagine if a 32" trout was caught in Big Lake? I've caught 24" 6 pounders in the lake. TO ME, our fish seem heavier here, just not quite as long as the ones in Baffin, Corpus, etc....

Just my .02.....

[MathGeek]

Originally Posted by mstulb

That makes absolutely no sense. What about the marshes on se ends of galveston bay and ne corner. Lower Laguna and Baffin have huge marshes feeding into estuary. Baffin, corpus christy, and laguna madre there salt levels stay in mid 20's. Why they have giants and we don't.

Big Lake has never had specks as big as Baffin, Corpus, and Lower Laguna.

Those systems favor the production of much smaller numbers of bigger fish.

The waters are warmer due to lower latitude which extends the growing season, so specks grow longer each year. The bigger specks actually get big enough to eat smaller specks buy age 3 or so, so that speck on speck food chain is much more prominent than in Louisiana waters.

Another important difference is that those marshes have always been salt marshes. They have reached an equilibrium as salt marshes. They are not formerly brackish marshes that stand to undergo tremendous erosive losses if converted to salt. Soil and bottom types are also much more resistant to erosion than the silt in SW LA.

[mr crab]

Originally Posted by MathGeek

Big Lake has never had specks as big as Baffin, Corpus, and Lower Laguna.

Those systems favor the production of much smaller numbers of bigger fish.

The waters are warmer due to lower latitude which extends the growing season, so specks grow longer each year. The bigger specks actually get big enough to eat smaller specks buy age 3 or so, so that speck on speck food chain is much more prominent than in Louisiana waters.

Another important difference is that those marshes have always been salt marshes. They have reached an equilibrium as salt marshes. They are not formerly brackish marshes that stand to undergo tremendous erosive losses if converted to salt. Soil and bottom types are also much more resistant to erosion than the silt in SW LA.

annnnd no weirs

[bjqx]

Originally Posted by mstulb

That makes absolutely no sense. What about the marshes on se ends of galveston bay and ne corner. Lower Laguna and Baffin have huge marshes feeding into estuary. Baffin, corpus christy, and laguna madre there salt levels stay in mid 20's. Why they have giants and we don't.

I have friends that guide in several estuary's in texas and when they come to big lake and see a weir system blocking off a natural marsh. They laugh and say only in LA can you buy a lock sytem to protect yourduck hunting.

I think BAY SYSTEMS like BB,LM,GB etc. where always salt water systems as too LAKES like BL,SL,etc. where fresh water systems with undamed rivers flowing into them. Then came ship channels and intercostal water ways and things changed. Talked with Peggy Baily who was very old and she grew up on the north end of sabine lake,shes been daed for about ten years. She said Sabine way back when was half the size it is now and was full of cypres trees and very shallow.