These small worms are so important to the feeding cycle of some large predators.........weakfish...big bluefish.....and bass as well.....I'm surprised ya remembered way back when I was talking about this, Shark.......
These
aren't the small sand and blood worms that live in the clam beds....they're much smaller......I'll have to do some research to try to come up with a pic and an exact scientific name....
If anyone can help with the ID in the meantime I would be most grateful......They are
very tiny worms, no bigger than your fingernail....that live in clumps of bottom vegetation......This vegetation is very specific.....some have described it as "moss-like"....
but the key is that it is often found around the "coral type" bottoms that Shark has described......When you're bouncing bottom with a bucktail or jig.....you often come up with clumps of this coral/muck/mud/vegetation....in certain areas....that is filled with these tiny marine worms...........
I think part of the feeding cycle is these clumps of vegetation allow these tiny worms to thrive...which in turn attracts small
baitfish....spearing...peanuts....baby fluke, flounder....sea bass....tog......many other species seem to thrive around it.......the bigger predators either are attracted to that activity...
OR they just center around the worms in the vegetation, and eat that if there are no baitfish around.....
I have found this stuff in the bellies of larger bass and bluefish I kept and cleaned.....and may have mentioned it here...once or twice.....
**(That's why Sharkhart catches a lot of fish throughout the year......IMO is one of NJ's most successful weak fishermen.....and also in the past when there were 15+ lb weakfish that you could hunt.....he was on them regularly...)
He pays attention to the conditions that bring fish in to feed at night....and hunts for numbers, selectively targeting them...based on that.....