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| Periodically in the hot summer, high water temperature months in Northern IL we see fish porpoise. When this is happening we rarely are getting follows or strikes. What is causing these fish to behave this way, why are they doing it, and is it better to just hit a different lake becuase this is an indication the fish are in a funk?
ps. I'm refering to lazy porpoising fish not active baitfish feeding activity we sometimes see. |
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| In all the years I've been musky fishing, I've never had anyone give me a good explanation as to why fish do this. I've seen huge walleyes (talk about weird!) do it right along with the muskies. You are right about the fact these fish are rarely interested in chasing lures. I have however, induced a few strikes and follows with noisy surface lures ripping them across the surface as fast as possible. Doesn't work all the time, but often enough I keep doing it. |
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| what is porpoise??
plitzzz[:0] |
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| I submitted this question to the "Fishing Minnesota" forum last year. Here's a link to that post (if that's ok with the moderators). http://fishingminnesota.com/ubb/Forum51/HTML/000122.html
We see gar doing the same thing. It's an interesting thing to observe. Hope you find their thoughts helpful.
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| Floating with fins, and back out of the water. Like a porpoise. |
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| A recent study has shown that lakefront owners often watch re-runs of Flipper, thus influencing the local 'ski population![;)]
Actually I remember hearing that they did this in response to a form of microscopic lice in their gills, but have no idea if this is true. I have never seen a musky porpoise, but have seen carp...another question for JLong! |
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| I don't know the reason behind this behaviour, but I have experienced something similar. It happens only on one particular lake at night when there is no wind and the water is as smooth as glass. While trolling, I can hear fish jumping completely out of the water. Some sound like 2 or 3lb bass, and others sound like a 260lb man doing a belly-flop from 10 feet above the water. Although it's too dark to see these fish, I can see the splash in the moonlight and I know that some are BIG. Most splashes are coming from shoals and weed flats, but some originate from open water that is 30+ feet deep. This also seems to coincide with mayfly hatches so thick you can hardly take a breath without inhaling 5 or 10. Are these big fish 30lb carp, or muskie? Why are all of these fish jumping? The only theory that I can come up with is that panfish are feeding on the mayflies at the surface and larger fish are feeding on the panfish. Muskies are probably then feeding on all of these fish. This would explain splashing at the surface, but why are they jumping completely out of the water (I know they are doing this because you can hear them leave the water, then splash back down a second later)? And why can't I catch them? I've cast and trolled topwaters, jerkbaits, crankbaits, bucktails, spinnerbaits, jigs, and plastics at all depths with no takers. It's very frustrating and I can't explain it, but at the same time it is an awesome experience. I wish I had a night-vision infrared camera!
Keep your hooks sharp - and your wits sharper. |
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| I have seen Tiger Muskies doing this on my lake. It was overcast just before a rain. All of a sudden they were EVERYWHERE around our boat swimming with their mouths out of the water as if they were "scooping" up something from the top of the water. Never been able to hook one while this happens.
According to a biologist friend (he thinks), as mentioned above, the fish are trying to remove something in their gills. |
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| Tom, I think you're onto something! Next time they surround your boat w/ their mouths open, record them...my guess is that they are singing "Who'll Stop the Rain", "Rainy Night in Georgia" or perhaps some other weather related tune. (I'll send you a Fish Flute) Stranger things have happened.....[:0] |
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| Sponge Bob: During the half-time show at the next Superbowl, we could put Shania Twain in a boat lip-sinking with the fish all around the boat singing to her. Wondering what a good name for the group would be? |
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| The best explanation I've heard regarding this came from a Fisheries Biologist friend of mine who theorized that becuase Tigers are fed pellets at the hatchery, which float until they are saturated, then they sink, and because muskies are primarily sight feeders, they are simply looking for food. I've seen this happen countless times, but only with tigers.
It's as good as any other theory I've heard! |
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| Thats a good question, I've seen this numerous times and find it quite entertaining or fustrating, depending on the size of the fish. i have asked some local fish biologists and they all have some different answers. My theory is that they are just the fish with a funny side to them, they think they are being smart by doing zanny things to annoy us fisherman.
D'arcy Finlan
Darcy's Guide Service |
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| Sorry Tom, I missed your post![:(] Maybe for next years Bowl eh? The town here is going bonkers...Rhonde/Tiki Barber grew up in SW county, and we used to watch them play in school, so they are heros around here. The pellet thing that Jamie said sounds reasonable; hatchery trout can be caught on raisins, as they resemble pellets.... |
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| I have also seen this on some northern WI lakes while fishing for suspended fish, but sometimes with a different result. On one particular lake when these muskies were porpoising, the action was hot. As soon as I quit seeing the fish on the surface, the action slowed. One thing to note is that I was not targeting fish that were surfacing, just fishing in the general area. While fishing shallower water I have gotten a few lookers by using a Jackpot casted to where I saw the fish. |
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| Does anyone know if fish ever need to "swallow" air to stabilize their float bladder? If they do then maybe they are simply too busy attempting to maintain their equilibrium to think about eating anything.
Ooops... I did not mean to use the word think. Sorry Steve. |
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| DJH
you got it. Almost all freshwater fish need to gulp air to regulate there swim bladders, unlike some deep saltwater fish that can do it internally. ive seen it happen a lot of times, they're just messin with your mind [:knockout:]
"tah da gills" |
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| DJH,
you got it, almost all freshwater fish need to get air from the surface to regulate thier swim bladders, unlike some deepwater saltwater fish that can regulate it internally. there just teasin ya[:bigsmile:] seen it happen lots of times, sure gets the heart crankin.
tah da gills |
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| I'll offer some suggestions from an Icthyological side of things.(Just had the class last semester.)
"Lesser" teleost fishes or soft-rayed fishes ,i.e. muskies, have a "direct connection" from their swim bladder to the atmosphere. "Higher" teleost fishes or spiny-rayed fishes, i.e. Walleyes, do not have a direct connection with the atmosphere. For example most here have had fish roll belly up at boatside. What's the easiest way to fix this, "burp" them. When you burp a musky you can actually see the air bubble come out the mouth. Now when walleyes are trawled up from relatively deep water they are brought to the surface rather fast and cannot equalize by the time they hit the surface. Instead of "burping" the Walleyes you must stick a syringe-type-deal through the belly and into the swimm bladder. Here you can see the air bubbles come out of the syringe.
Now, do I believe that porpoising Muskies are releasing/gathering Oxygen? I still am not sure. I too have witnessed this many times with absolutely no results. I've had them swim right by the outboard no more than 5 feet away! |
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Location: Woodstock, IL | This very phenomenon occured the evening I hooked my largest musky. For about 10 minutes, there were walleye (I think) porpoising all around the boat. I was casting a bucktail and soaking a sucker. All of the sudden, the walleye disappeared and about 30 seconds later, a 47 incher hit my sucker in about 15 feet.
I've always assumed that the musky came in too feed on the walleye and took my offering instead. I have no idea what the walleye were doing. |
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