An Interesting Shadow ...

We did one of our annual marl-pit fishing trips here this past week. They mine this marl from a lot of areas around here for road beds, driveways and such, which results in some deep "gravel pit" type fishing holes later on. Of course, the thing the land developers now do is to sub-divide the land around these ponds and then call them "lakes"; and there goes these wonderful bream & L/M bass fishing holes. There's one particular long and winding pit that is indeed slated for developement and "progress" is not too far away, but we still managed to get one more go at it. Short of a miracale happening, next year I would expect to see housing being constructed all along it's banks. Be as it may, there are some real big bream living in that pond and we relieved it of some and enjoyed a big fish fry right there along the banks.

Had an interesting thing happen that I have never seen before. I was working the edge of the pond using my "popper" fly rod, fishing from the canoe, and I made a cast in front of the canoe towards a point of land that jots out aways and marks a turn in the shorline. I saw this fish aggressively come out from the shoreline and really nail the popper I was casting. As it turned out that fish was a 13" L/M bass and, indeed, a real scrapper. But I noted that all the while me and Mr. Bass were in the midst of this knock-down, drag out, there was a shadow fish, about the same size, following almost every move the hooked bass was making. Sort of like a pilot fish that follows sharks and whales. As I got the bass close to the canoe I got a good look at the following fish in the clear waters, I could see it was another bass. Not until that caught fish was swooped up in the net did the other fish break off the pursuit and disappear. Of course, I use the barbless hook and after a quick measurement, Mr. Bass was back in the water. But in all my time of fishing I don't believe I've ever seen this shadowing by another fish. Was wondering if anyone else ever seen this happen.

By all means, let us not let the P.I.T.A. yahoos know about this, for fear of maybe giving cause that fishing will be the undue stress in fish relationships!


Dale

[This message has been edited by DaleW (edited 06 May 2005).]

I actually have it happen quite often, many times with larger fish following along. This seems to happen more often when I hook larger 18+ inch fish. I think the extreme activity of the hooked bass makes the other fish think there may be an easy meal in the offing. One time, I was fighting a bass about the same size as you had on (13-14 inches long). The water was pretty stained and he went deep right near the shore when he saw me. He got really sluggish and heavy and I thought he had dug into pond slime on the bottom. I striped the line to where I had the rod tip near the water and gently eased him up. When I got him to the surface, a very large 12-13 lb bass had "my" fish over half way in her mouth. When she saw me, she spit him out and casualy swam away. My bass seemed just as happy to take his chances with me (all C&R) as it sure beat the heck the alternative. This really emphasised to me how bass like large baits!

Jim Smith

Hey Dale,

Not uncommon with bass and a number of
other fish as well. I have even seen
"doubles" on the same lure/fly when a fish
tried to snatch the thing away from the
first fish.*G* Warm regards, Jim

Yeah, James, I've had a bigger fish persue the smaller one I had hooked, in fact, even had them hit the one hooked - even caught a northern pike one time this way. But in this case, both fish were just about the same size and the second fish was kind of following along right under the hooked fish.

Anyway, had never had such a view of this happening before with such clarity.

Dale

Dale, I see this happen some with largemouth but it is really common with school fish like whitebass and stripers. Many times the fish are following the other one because they think he has something to eat, in my opinion. When striper or sandbass fishing with a partner, when one guy hooks up the other guy can cast near the hooked fish and often catch another one following it. I have, on numerous occassions sat on a school of sandbass or stripers that I could see on my fish finder in my boat and pound them with every lure I had in the box and finally get one to take and then the whole school would turn on. What you actually do is create a feeding frenzy. They see one fish get hooked and act erratically and the others go into a feeding mode. When that happens with others in the boat, one guy will keep the first fish in the water until the next guy hooks up before bringing his fish in so they'll stay interested. If you've ever caught 2 fish on a topwater bait or a crankbait, (ie a lure with treble hooks) what sometimes happens is the first fish bites and then the following fish sees the lure hanging from his mouth and tries to take it from him. I've seen this happen with a topwater bait when striper fishing. I've seen 4 or 5 stripers or sandbass follow a hooked fish to the boat before.

I concur with Bob--i've seen it quite a bit when striper fishing. I've even lost the fish i initially hooked only to take one of the trailers rush in and grab the fly.

MY son was sight casting for redfish in a deeper channel running thru the flats we were fishing when he hooked one. As he fought the one he had on another redfish came up and kept trying to get an angle on the soft bait that was just outside his fish's mouth. That was the first time I had ever seen that done so I thought it was pretty cool. My son didn't get to see it as he was kind of busy at the time.

Rusty <><

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if you wanna catch something ya gotta get a hook in the water

Was watching OLN this AM and they had a grand sequence of a large tarpon "shadowing" a hooked large tarpon......large fish.....filmed at night....Spanish Fly program.
.....lee s.