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Posts: 767
Location: Ames, Iowa | Just got back from Leech tonight. The other day I encountered a healthy looking 40"+ fish going thru the standard porpoising routine- at the surface, head often out of the water, no interest in a bait. Over the years on MuskieFirst we've read all kinds of reasons they do this (unfortunately my search skills on here didn't find much).
I paralleled the fish until he cut right in front of the bow of my boat. Looking right down on the fish, I noticed this muskie had what looked like fresh tearing at his mouth that looked to be associated with being recently hooked. I wonder if that is a reason they might porpoise. |
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Posts: 1217
Location: Walker, MN | I feel like it's a pressure thing. They are often opening and closing their jaw, much like people on an aircraft trying to clear their popping ears? I had to google it...fish do indeed have an inner ear, though they don't have ears...not exactly sure.
I'm intrigued by your theory, though I'm sure I've seen plenty of porpoising fish that hadn't been previously caught...no anglers around. |
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| I also have seen porpoising fish when there were no anglers in sight. But I suppose that does not mean they couldn't have been hooked some time before.
I have wondered if they aren't just curious about the world above the water. Years ago, returning to my dock from a morning fishing, my neighbor's daughter and her husband were swimming the perimeter of the lake in prep for a triathlon. The said they wished I would catch the musky that had been shadowing them for a hundred yards or so. He would stick his head above the water and look right at them. The husband fishes musky, said it was an upper 30s fish and stayed the same distance the whole time. Would just pop his head up, look at them and then parallel them as they swam. |
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Posts: 767
Location: Ames, Iowa | No one else was in sight when I saw this fish. But the gap in the side of the mouth and half inch of flesh hanging off the jawline was pretty telltale. He'd been hook damaged like many are. |
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Posts: 332
Location: Selkirk, Manitoba | The prevailing theories are air bladder regulation or trying to increase oxygen intake by gulping air. I tend towards the latter theory.
The folks who rear the little guys probably have some insight as to when smaller ones do it (probably not at all, given quick dinner for a lot of bird predators and other fish) - except when oxygen very low.
I suspect it is larger fish that are in warm water in a bit of situational oxygen distress taking a few gulps to get a quick hit of oxygen. Note that esocids are very closely related to the umbrid family (come off the same evolutionary branch) and the umbrids (mudminnows) do gulp air to supplement their oxygen supply given they do often live in very low oxygen environments.
It seem big muskies do this a fair bit and probably when they are in shallow digesting in warm (low oxygen water), so perhaps gulping gives them an O2 hit.
We see it a lot where we fish up here and lots of bald eagles and osprey around, so not something I think they would do unless absolutely necessary. The fish we do see though are typically of sizes that exceed what an eagle or osprey could handle.
Edited by Angling Oracle 6/16/2024 12:43 PM
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Location: Eastern Ontario | Thinking back using an 81 year old memory I believe I have only seen it on flat calm days from late Aug. to early Oct. which may give some support to the oxygen therory . But would you see it if the water was choppy unless it was very close. Choppy water should contain more oxygen. I dont recall ever seeing it on the Larry which with high current and comming from lake Ontario should contain lots of oxygen.
Having cast to possibly hundreds of these fish i have only caught one of course this happened when I was telling someone they couldn't be caught . So after fishing for these stinking bags of teeth and bones for almost 50 years I still know nothing.
Edited by horsehunter 6/17/2024 7:37 AM
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Posts: 767
Location: Ames, Iowa | Water temp was 64.7 degrees. I have seen them doing this almost exclusively nearer dusk... but that may because they're easier to spot then. Back in the dark ages I used to raise the tiger muskies for the IA Cooperative Fisheries Unit at Iowa State University in the Sciences II labs. Never saw that in the tanks, but I saw a lot of really interesting feeding behavior. |
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Posts: 1216
| Like others, I've seen the typical "porpoising" several times. Swimming around with their nose out of the water. Usually just a few minutes and not much other activity. Started thinking it might have something to do with feeding/digestion, after watching one unique episode. Fish was about 45". First saw it from a distance and thought it was a muskrat. Worked my way over close enough to see it was a muskie. He would disappear for a few seconds, and pop up again a little ways away. I stayed in the area just to watch. Popped up pretty close to the boat once, and I could see the smallest bit of a fish tail sticking out between it's closed jaws. After about 5 minutes or more, of this, it added rolling and exposing it's belly and wiggling, to each time it surfaced. This went on for 20 minutes or more. All I could think of was that it was simply trying to maneuver it's meal around, and assist it going down easier. Most of this activity was taking place off the break, over deeper water. When I first saw it, it was coming from near the shoreline. When it finally went down the last time, it was heading back into the bay. |
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Posts: 8744
| Seen it twice, both on hot flat days in August. There was a theory floating around some years ago that they do it to dislodge gill parasites. Low 02 levels make sense, but then maybe they do that on cooler choppy days and we just don't see them. Could be a way to help them swallow a meal. That would explain why they don't pay any attention to lures. Who knows, maybe they're just looking around....
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