Halfbeaks in the Shrewsbury

[Arbutis]

I was out crabbing last night and saw an impressive number of halfbeaks in the river along with several mullet schools. At first I thought they were ballyhoo - but after closer inspection they had a little different look (smaller in size and a little more chubby) but still with that long stick coming out of the bottom lip.

Has anyone else seen these in the bays or rivers?

[Gerry Zagorski]

Saw a few in our Marina a few weeks ago, I think. Might have been gar though...

[Hunter 2]

They are in the marina in Keyport this year. Not sure of the correct species.

[JBird]

I haven't seen them recently but several years ago I was chasing blues off Rockaway and they were spitting up ballyhoo/half beaks.

Just looked in fishbase website and there are 2 species that could be in our waters, the only 2 listed as "Western Atlantic", and they're the "Balao" and "Ballyhoo" species of Halfbeaks. Not sure how different they are from each other, they looked identical to me.

[Rottilover]

How'd you do crabbing? Was thinking about making one last trip

[broken bobber]

How'd you do crabbing? Was thinking about making one last trip

crabbed last 2 hrs of out going yesterday in the Navasink...west side of bridge in 8 ft of water...chicken on the strings..... 38 good ones came home.....

[Rottilover]

Sweet. Gonna hit it one more time

[jmurr711]

I've caught alot of northern sennets while snapper fishing in the past I wonder if this is what you saw they kinda look like a cross between a needlefish & ballyhoo

[Andrushkin33]

I could be wrong but I would go with needlefish. Been seeing tons of them for the last two or three weeks. Best one was actually last week when it managed to catch a baby peanut bunker and had it in its mouth. Awesome.

Good to hears still some blue claws around. Might have to take one more trip for them as well.

Andre

[Jigman13]

Prob half beaks. Gotta throw the net then brine them. Good trolling baits to supplement/offset ballyhoo costs!

[Dino]

needlefish

[Arbutis]

Definitely not a needlefish or gar fish or as I've heard them called in the past - houndfish. Yes, these fish are all over the place as well - and they are quite vicious and mean looking - and they get quite large.

They both swim close to the surface and have that pointy snout so I know they get mixed up a lot.

The halfbeaks look just like ballyhoo - prob same family. Long pointed lower lip but don't have the pointy teeth all over like the needlefish or gar or whatever you want to call it.

Anyway - what I was seeing was the halfbeaks and they almost look like a large fat spearing with the same silvery body and a single wide stripe down the length of the body. Probably fantastic bait.

houndfish
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halfbeak
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