I was fishing a north shore beach yesterday afternoon, walked over the dunes with a west wind of some sort blowing - typical fall pattern, wind blows the bait offshore and big pods of fish chasing bait way offshore, lots of birds and several boats on them. Could see the small splashes, but too far to see exactly what without binoculars.

... while I was watch several schools way offshore, hoping/praying that one would get forced in shore straight to me ... I noticed some big splashes on an outer bar - again too far to reach from shore (high tide too, but could tell the wave patterns it was the bar) ...

... as I watched for the big splashes, I saw it was big, big bass leaping into the air and then splashing down on their sides ... kind of like how a big whale breaches and makes the big splashes for the boats ...

... there were no splashes of bait ... I thought for a while that possibly a seal could be chasing, but no commotion after the fish would land, rather they were calmly leaping completely out of the water and lazily splashing down ...

... the fish were too to far to reach with the rod, but these were big bass and I was surprised that none of the boats following the pods of busting fish further offshore noticed the splashing bass ...

... very cool and a good sign to see the big fish around.

Thoughts?

Not sure how much water we're talking about here, but I would have guessed they were getting pushed up by tuna from your description.

The do that when they have an itch they can't reach
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any chance they were sturgeon?

yeah not sturgeon, acting more like mullet do.

As for tuna, I did not see any big splashes ... there was no frantic action to their behavoir which makes me think they were not being chased, although cannot tell for sure since I was not with them.

I have seen bluefish being pursued by giants and they were focused, on target and scared ... these fish were more lazy in their behavior ...

front beach sand bar?

It may have been those bass with teeth that were referenced earlier in the year on this site. I believe this behavior is unique to this group of fish.

I don't recall that thread, but yes, they were stripers.

The only time I have ever seen bass act this way is when they are feeding on squid in the spring. They will jet their entire bodies out of the water to get them. Doubtful that they were on squid (although possible), but maybe they were feeding on other bait that rushes to the top with decent speed for them to catch.

Ok heres another odd one for ya... I was on the ferry to BI and were underway im out on the deck no matter what time of year, I was a commercial fisherman to long to be in the "galley" so to say... Im out smokin watching the water and I see some commotion... Its a BIG girl Like 45+ pound girl on the surface tail slappin this sea robin trying to choke it down.. Slap the thing is stunned she trys to inhale it gets it stuck, slap again tries again.. this went on for like 5 mins as we steamed by and prob kept on going... Thought it was cool as hell but weird.. As far the behavior your describing if it was on a sand bar and shallow they could of been jumping it to get to a pod of bait on other side.. I have seen them in water so skinny they are on their sides to get through to get to bait....

This may sound dumb, but do you think they were jumping over the sand bar to get to the other side?

This may sound dumb, but do you think they were jumping over the sand bar to get to the other side?

Hey.... this is the making of a good joke...

Lots of big splashes off Plum Island for the last few days. I don't think they were stripers, but tuna. The birds were diving on what some thought were stripers feeding. If you looked carefuly, you would see a group of loons that were feeding on small bait and the gulls were trying to steal their fish when they surfaced. Some real big loons returning from the lakes for the winter.
The Gannets are active and the off shore splashes were the Gannets diving on bait. The fall migration is on!:fishin::fishin: It is only - but only my opinion, is that with the last few blitzes filled with LARGE fish, the season is closing rapidly. The Gannets usually signal the seasons end as they chase bait far offshore.

The strange thing is that there are still Bluefish here, you saw those pogies yesterday in the wash they were torn to shreads

Butt tipically garnets means the end is near
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there were no gannets where i was when i saw this, I could see the fish clearly, not tunas either ... striped bass

Lots of Gannets today diving just out of casting range, I didn't see any fish under them

maybe they are trying to spawn their eggs ;)

or get the sealice off themselves




I bet they were just hungry

Seals Chasing them? I saw a blackfish jump out of the water the other day and thought i was hallucintating. about ten minuters later i saw a seal with the tog in his mouth.

Just came back from one of Newport's Points - it was ******* Point, actually

Saw the same thing 200 yds out toward the middle right at the overcast dawn

Small pod of fish broke away from the main school, birds crashing and a big bait slick spread over the water right in front of me

Finally figured out it was a bass slick when a seal popped up right in the middle of it 20 feet away from me

Apparently the seals were working the shoreline, having Kibbles 'n' Bass for breakfast...:af:

Grrrrrrr...:rocketem:

It's time to start doing somehting about the Seal explosion ... not sure what it was like here 200 years ago, but who cares? There are too many and will start to impact coastal communities more than we can imagine if we don't level them out.

It's time to start doing somehting about the Seal explosion ... not sure what it was like here 200 years ago, but who cares? There are too many and will start to impact coastal communities more than we can imagine if we don't level them out.

Start to? A visit to Cape Cod will demonstrate how it already has. Few people are fishing off the Race any more, just a waste of time. No point fishing the Outer beaches, seals littered everywhere.

break out the clubs...

they are starting to invade CT and NY waters to, i've never seen them this early on the CT shore, usually a few stay out at the race and the islands during the summer.... every year they feast on the holdovers in the harbor all winter long. that's got to cause the bass alot of stress, they have nowhere else to go.