odd fish phenomenom

[El Presidente]

Ken, fish love structure and are creatures of habit.

Creek or run off openings are havens for fish. It may be just the case of refuse runoff or maybe a few restaurants who throw things into the creek 3pm each day. Fish learn.

[Ken Gargett]

» Ken, fish love structure and are creatures of habit.

»

» Creek or run off openings are havens for fish. It may be just the case of

» refuse runoff or maybe a few restaurants who throw things into the creek

» 3pm each day. Fish learn.

it didn't look like that sort of run off but possible. but if so, why on earth has someone not swooped through with a net. even for cat food, there was a mass here. and people were fishing nearby so assume it not banned. if a regular event, locals must know about it and not that everyone in europe is so fussy as to not eat fish from a relatively clean river.

it was very strange.

[Ziggy]

I've seen schools of mullet in Florida like that. No idea what kind they were?

[CIGARHead]

Ken,

As Ziggy said, mullet do this - and that's what those look like from the pics. They come to the surface and breath air like that when there is a shortage of oxygen in the water...especially happens in stagnant water where there's little to no movement of water.

[Colt45]

Well KG, since you seem to have no idea what they're doing, I have to believe that they are mating.

[Chicago]

»Must be Spring Break!:-D

[Ken Gargett]

» Hi

» Ken

» I have seen this before in Fla in the flats, inshore, and deep sea. We

» call it fish schooling. I have seen this with larger fish as they move

» from one location to another. In Florida in the winter time starts all the

» major fish migrations. The fish start move from North to South. It works

» out nice for me because the fishing get crazy.

dead keen to catch a tarpon. we have them here but only small, in comparison. recently found, among my father's old books, a first edition zane grey from the 1920's about fishing down florida way. some great stuff on tarpon etc.

the mullet idea was what struck me at the time but certainly different to our mullet, though not so much that they might not be a subspecies. as a kid with my dad, we would occasionally get stuck ino schools of mullet running the gutter with some jag hooks. good fun, though probably not for the mullet.

the oxygen thing makes sense except for the fact that if they turned around and swam 30 yards out into the river they had clean fresh and presumably oxygen filled water.

also, they were all headed up this tiny inlet which let nowhere. no way was this the start of a migration, unless going 20 metres up towards a sewer counts.

a mate fished new zealand a while back and was talking to an old guy that used to fish cuba pre revolution. he said that schools of bones in the thousands were not uncommon, and once or twice actually saw a couple of these schools collide. only once have i had a day where i saw large school - 100 to may be 200 fish - sadly i had a guide who was far more interested in having his 80th smoke for the day and bugger the ihing. kept saying cast, cast, while the fish were still 100 metres away. i like to be able to pat them before i cast.

[El Presidente]

» Well KG, since you seem to have no idea what they're doing, I have to

» believe that they are mating.

:rotfl: :rotfl:

[hoyopr]

Ken I can't tell from the photo the size of the fish or the depth of the water just beyond, but could they have been driven to shallow water by seals or some other preditor?

As an aside 2 years ago I was fishing trout on the Fraser River during the Adams River Sockeye Salmon run and over the course of two days we had a solid column of 3 deep and 4-5 fish wide these great fish non stop. Most salmon spieces don't feed when they enter the fresh water on the last leg of the spawning journey, fortunately the trout do. If you like trout fishing BC has a few good spots around.

[smokum]

Most fish species are very dumb. If I had to guess I would say they just got off at the wrong exit and had to turn around.:-D

[Ken Gargett]

» Ken I can't tell from the photo the size of the fish or the depth of the

» water just beyond, but could they have been driven to shallow water by

» seals or some other preditor?

» As an aside 2 years ago I was fishing trout on the Fraser River during the

» Adams River Sockeye Salmon run and over the course of two days we had a

» solid column of 3 deep and 4-5 fish wide these great fish non stop. Most

» salmon spieces don't feed when they enter the fresh water on the last leg

» of the spawning journey, fortunately the trout do. If you like trout

» fishing BC has a few good spots around.

no. this was near a city, no seals or anything i could spot. and they were no frantic at all. quite calm.

might remain a mystery.

[Ken Gargett]

when in oporto, went for a walk around the riverfront not far from where it heads ocean-ward saw some decent sized fish but when i got to a small inlet under a bridge (there was nothing i could see to entice this and the water from the inlet was not flowing very quickly), there were masses of fish. no one could tell me more. they were a good size, most of hem several pounds. quite bizarre. any thoughts.

these are some photos of them. the first one shows the small inlet. the black stuff is fish.

[Miami101]

Hi

Ken

I have seen this before in Fla in the flats, inshore, and deep sea. We call it fish schooling. I have seen this with larger fish as they move from one location to another. In Florida in the winter time starts all the major fish migrations. The fish start move from North to South. It works out nice for me because the fishing get crazy.

Here are some shots of Tarpon moving in a schools. Note some of the Tarpon stay year round, and a major number of them come down once a year. This is one of the best sports fish. I have seen them go over 180 to 250 pound. I have not been able to land one that size, but have had a good 1 hour fight...............:-(

Other great fish in Fla include Snook, Red Fish, Black Drum, King Fish, Jack....Peacock.....etc...I love them all.