Jumping Fish

[Fishingron]

My brother and I fish a lot out of Cottonport mostly south down the river. Seems like every time we go, just at first light fish start jumping everywhere along the bank and at the mouth of the sloughs. They don't bite and you cant catch one and I never got a good look to see what they are. Here's the question, does anyone have any idea what kind of fish this is. Seems like it just lasts a few minutes at first light and it's over.

 

[fishinvol]

Buffalo , carp, other junk fish do it a lot in the mornings. Not sure the reason.

 

[rusty50576]

White bass and skipjack are busting the surface like crazy around Knoxville but they can be caught

 

[jdw2920]

lot of bass are coming up too but want hit either i know its bass cause i can see them. want touch topwater or crankbaits or jerkbaits

 

[back_water]

on lower nickajack, bass do it alot. Large mouth and stripes. I do catch them with swim baits, shiner.

 

[ccone]

gizzard shad will do this

 

[porthos33]

I know there have been a lot of schools of yellow and white bass busting on top in big schools mostly in the evening. The last couple mornings I noticed wolf packs blowing up again and thought they were white bass but noticed it was less fish and smaller packs which is usually LM bass so I rode over and started throwing a spook and did catch a few largemouth out of a couple wolf packs. If it's just one fish at a time it's usually what fishnvol said. Ive caught some really big catfish if it's close enough to immediately throw a lure at the splash.

 

[polo-dog]

In my experience when there are surfacing fish and you can't get them to bite it is usually Skipjack Herring that are eating the baits. Usually they are feeding on small threadfin shad in the 1-2 inch range and you can catch them with a small white or chartreuse jig one to two feet below a float. They can be a lot of fun and they are great bait for stripers if they are kept alive or as cutbait for catfish.

 

[jsb]

We had one on a top water lure at the mouth of a slough just below cottonport about a week ago. It was about a 3lb lm but that's the only bite we have gotten on those fish.

 

[rsimms]

Not enough info to be clear... but, if they are large fish, I agree with fishinvol. It is most likely buffalo.

As he noted, nobody really knows why but buffalo frequently surface with large splashes. If you just happen to be looking directly at a spot when one surfaces high, you can see their humped back and high dorsal fin. But usually, you just hear a great big splash and don't see the fish.

They always get my clients really excited. I explain what they are, but usually they don't believe me.

 

[porthos33]

I hooked a really big fish below the dam a couple weeks ago on 4lb test that make a 200 yard run right when we I hooked it. Benny Hull was there and he immediately told his camera man to grab and start filming. While fighting the fish it jumped out of no where and it looked to be a Huge Buffalo! Ended up breaking me off so I probably won't make the show. haha I was really shocked that thing jumped so high during the fight. It was pretty cool b/c I had my two twin nieces helping me fight the fish and all they talked about was that guy Benny Hull. I was cracking up. My family is not a fishing family so no one even knew who he was!