So i was fishing this hidden woodland pond adjacent from lake crabtree across 40 where this killer bike trail is and I found these weird masses in the water looked something like this:




I was pretty sure it was some kind of egg mass, maybe gar or somethin...anyway after 45 minutes of not gettin a bite i chunked out

ewhen i got home curiosity got the better of me and I spent 3 hours (yes thats what i do with my time) trying to figure out exactly what it was, spending two and a half hours thinking it was a blue spotted salamander egg mass.

But then again, once i read up on their life history i became suspicious of this because they sojourn en masse by the thousands to a pond to spawn, there would have been ALOT more of these masses.,..but the habitat was perfect otherwise

anyway, just about 20 minutes ago i just happened across the word "bryozoa" so i checked it out, never having heard of this but alas...that is exactly what they were.

pretty cool, coral like anaimals that are mainly pelagic but one genera inhabits freshwaters, mainly dead still ponds. YOull see them underwater affixed to sticks and logs, even docks

anyway, just wanted to share the products of my research, and was wondering if anyone had ever seen this anywhere...cuz i sure the hell hadnt but i so badly wanted to go out and grab one, but the pond was far too muddy to reliably wade and it was kinda deep in the woods to call for help.

cool story bro.

9/2/2010 11:45:53 PM

cool story Bryozoan

9/2/2010 11:46:48 PM

yeah, they are totally gross, i think they found some in a tunnel under cameron village and got freaked out one time

9/2/2010 11:47:59 PM

this picture more represents how i saw them as they were completely submerged and i, of course, was viewing from above the water line

it was kind of eerie maybe more so because of the desolate location, any time u see weird shit in unfamiliar territory and in a water system with high PCBs, you get unnerved a little easier than normal

supposedly they are very jelly like, and also they reportedly indicate good water quality

[Edited on September 2, 2010 at 11:57 PM. Reason : d]

9/2/2010 11:50:05 PM

They're fucking weird, I've seen plenty of them.

And yea I wouldn't wade back in any of those ponds.

9/2/2010 11:54:07 PM

Also I didn't know BHS was fishing guru.

9/2/2010 11:54:33 PM

i try, im the king of finding random unfished spots in the middle of the woods

9/3/2010 12:01:22 AM

I always wondered what those things were.

And FYI, blue spotted salamanders aren't in NC anyway. Spotted salamanders are, but they use fish-free wetlands for oviposition. That genus of salamanders are winter breeders, too.

9/3/2010 8:57:36 AM

thanks for clearing that up for me.


and i did read something about spotted salamanders needing fishless ponds so i had begun to wonder if that beaitufl woodland pond was a huge waste of time


i was glad to know that it was not the case that it was most likely a fishless pond...or was i

9/3/2010 2:32:51 PM