What's in the cast net today?

The instructor's demo cast hauled in some menhaden. Or do you call them shad?

Ninth-graders used cast and seine nets during a Back to the Bay class to get a peek at what's below the water's surface.

On this warm October morning at Baytown Nature Center we mostly found menhaden, brown shrimp, comb jelly and old oyster shells covered in barnacles and hooked mussels.

But it's always fun to catch something.

A guy looking for bait fish wanted this catch. Sorry, dude, this is a catch-and-release class.

One group caught a 5-inch blue crab with their seine net.

But mostly they caught little brown shrimp and comb jelly.

Getting schooled on cast nets

After about 15 frustrating minutes of getting into the swing of tossing the cast nets and pulling up nothing, the students hit a school of mullet. Yay!

The ninth-graders were part of Baytown Nature Center's Back to the Bay program, which opened again this week for the fall semester.

The only two girls in the group were the first ones to haul in a couple of fish. Girl power!

But the boys caught up. About 10 mullet were caught before the aquatic organism collection session ended.

The fish went back into the water, and the students had to return to campus for more schooling.

Fish of the day: mullet

Not all the ninth-graders who arrive at Baytown Nature Center for the Back to the Bay program are happy about being outdoors. It can be too hot or too cold. And sometimes insects are an extra bother.

But all the students seem to enjoy catching something with cast nets during Aquatic Organism Collection.

Today's biggest catch was mullet.

With the seine net, students in waders hauled in grass shrimp, a small flounder and more comb jelly.

Mullet portrait

Trying to scoop up Comb Jelly caught in a cast net.

Another mullet for show-and-tell and then back into the water.

Then the rains came on this September morning.