queensland Bait Fish Breaking The Surface

[fifis101]

Hey guys,

I went for a quick paddle yesterday up a little creek coming off the Brissy and I noticed that there were a lot of bait fish schools that kept breaking the surface. Not sure what species they were but they were doing it everywhere every few minutes or so. I tried casting my SP in these areas with mot much of a result.

I was just wondering, is this caused by predatory fish or is it just something that the bait fish commonly do on their own?

There were also a few larger fish jumping out of the water. These were probably just mullet but I only saw the splash after hearing the large slap on their return to the water.

Any opinions would be much appreciated.

[Terry H]

How big are you talking Josh?

I've seen schools of yakkas and/or slimies pick stuff off the surface of the water. Kind of like tuna or tailor smashing the surface.... except significantly smaller.

[fifis101]

They were roughly 80-120mm fish. They were pretty fast so I never really go a good look at what they were. I'll try and pay more attention next time.

Some of the surfacing schools were made up of about 20-30 fish breaking the surface in a 1-2m square area while others were made of up to 100+ and 3m+ square. The whole school was breaking the surface in about 1-2 seconds.

I could see that some of the fish were coming out of the water, some just half/skimming across the surface but I could see that some weren't really breaking the surface but skimming just under, just enough to make a bit of a wake.

[max pwr]

Could have been small tailor? I see the exact same thing down the tweed a lot

[elops]

Bony Bream

[Torium50]

Hey guys,

I went for a quick paddle yesterday up a little creek coming off the Brissy and I noticed that there were a lot of bait fish schools that kept breaking the surface. Not sure what species they were but they were doing it everywhere every few minutes or so. I tried casting my SP in these areas with mot much of a result.

I was just wondering, is this caused by predatory fish or is it just something that the bait fish commonly do on their own?

There were also a few larger fish jumping out of the water. These were probably just mullet but I only saw the splash after hearing the large slap on their return to the water.

Any opinions would be much appreciated.

Hi Fifis101

In my experience and depending on the specie of the bait fish, there could be multiple reasons for their behaviour.

Normally when bait fish ball up and breach the surface they are either in a feeding frenzy (could be waterbourne insects) or they are chased by some sort of predatory fish (anything from pike to bream to tailor or jewies). It's difficult to say why, so I can only speculate.

[aussie123]

When you see baitfish schools continually showering the water surface they are flat tail mullet.

They get very spooky when at the surface and birds flying overhead or shadows on the water make them shower all the time as well as any predators below them.

[qbkami]

Could have been small tailor? I see the exact same thing down the tweed a lot

+1

Id think its small tailor too.