Mucking

My 9 year old nephew, my 22 year old son and I figured to get some croakers. We grabbed some clams from Budd's Tackle and headed over to the ferry jetty.

While folks tucked a few miles inland enjoyed another lovely fall day, the bay front was a bit wild. A stiff northwest breeze pushed the Delaware up over jetty.

Keith has a bit more sense than I do. I asked if he wanted to go out to the end.

"No thank you. I don't want to die."

I went out there anyway, I managed to hook a kingfish on the second cast, but Keith still didn't want to die, so we decided to go mucking instead.

***

Mucking is a simple game. Put on your mucking clothes. Wait for low tide. Look for a mudflat. Wander.

We headed up to Villas--the best mucking days fall on a spring tide with a western breeze on a dog day in August, but we didn't want to wait for 10 months, so we mucked anyway.

Vast expanses of mud flats are exposed at low tide. Much of the mud is covered with just enough sand to get you in trouble. Breaking through the sand feels like breaking through ice. Black mud beneath the sand awaits unwary 9 year olds, waiting to eat their shoes.

The scientist will tell you that the mud is a nutrient rich environment; Keith will tell you, simply, "it stinks."

Bacteria break down proteins, releasing hydrogen sulfide, giving the mud the stench of rotten eggs. The hydrogen sulfide reacts with iron, giving the mud its rich color. After years of spending my best hours on flats, I've come to like rotten eggs.

Our finds?

A 2 foot long just dead dogfish
A smaller but significantly more dead clear nose skate
A gazillion horseshoe crab shells
One HUGE horseshoe crab tail (with the added bonus of rotten flesh still attached)
Two whelk egg case chains
Tons of snails
A hermit crab in a cracked shell
One softshell clam
Dolphins just beyond the breakers (in very shallow water)
A quahog shell
A pair of flip flops a hundred feet apart (and a li'l further than that now)
Black back gulls (and a whole lot of other plain ol' back gulls)
Black, thick, stinky sweet mud
A few razor clam shells
A HUGE (but dead) blue claw crab
A few lady crabs
Oyster shells
Bird poop
Two cabbage head jellies, one (sort of) alive

***

We never did make it to the Pumpkin Festival, and we missed the Lima Bean festival last week. Still, I think Keith would trade a wagon full of pumpkins for an afternoon on the Delaware flats.
I know I would.

The print is of a northern kingfish, courtesy of the US Dept of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service