How a fish moves along a beach

[JohnR]

I've been wondering this a bit and have trying to figure out if there is anythng to a how a fish / school of fish will work a beach. Will a school:

Typically head up into the current? So if the current is working left to right, will the school typically move from right to left?

Typically move with the current? So if the current is working right to left, the school typically will also move from right to left?

There is no significant correlation between how a school of fish moves in relation to the current beyond how the current carries bait past different structure

Dunno

[nightprowler]

Originally Posted by JohnR

I've been wondering this a bit and have trying to figure out if there is anythng to a how a fish / school of fish will work a beach. Will a school:

Typically head up into the current? So if the current is working left to right, will the school typically move from right to left?

Typically move with the current? So if the current is working right to left, the school typically will also move from right to left?

There is no significant correlation between how a school of fish moves in relation to the current beyond how the current carries bait past different structure

Dunno

I've seen all of the above occuring at different times. One day the fish are moving up current as the bait is pushed down, and the next the fish are following the bait as it moves down current.
After seeing both of these situations take place on a relatively regular basis, i would conclude there is no significant correlation....interested to hear what others with more experience might have to say.

[tattoobob]

I usually see them facing the current, and waiting for the bait to come to them, the bigger ones especially. I also think they cruising back and forth looking for food that gets kicked up from the waves.

[JohnR]

Originally Posted by tattoobob

I usually see them facing the current, and waiting for the bait to come to them, the bigger ones especially. I also think they curse back and forth looking for food that gets kicked up from the waves.

I agree on waiting for the bait to come to them as it is often a peice of structure they are waiting down current from. I'm curious about wich way they tend to cruise

[Skitterpop]

schoolies facing bigguns roam at low tide willy nilly or down deep out of heavy flow....unless substantial bait is present and its the Fall....then forget the answers

[piemma]

I can tell you for certain that on the Back when the tides starts to drop the fish move down or West. When its incoming the fish more up or east. Right on the drop and left on the rise. We use to follow the schools from one bar to the next and it was so much a rule that you could just move and you would know where the fish would be next. I'm not certain if that still works as I gave up on the back beach when the Seals because the State mammal of Mass.

[Backbeach Jake]

I think that maybe stripers head into current using the structure that produces a "lee" to preserve energy. As the bait comes with the flow, there they are in relative calm to snatch them up. But what do I know . Bet Fisheye knows. Please somebody else vote, I'm 100% Idunno!

[Backbeach Jake]

thanks

[numbskull]

You are really asking two questions. Bass as a school often follow bait as it moves down current, but when hunting on their own they usually move up current. Futhermore, anyone who has sight fished will know that bass often spook when a fly or plug approaches them from the side, something to keep in mind when making your initial casts at night (keep 'em short).

[Tagger]

I fish a beach with an inlet to my left that fills up 2 huge bays and probably 3 river systems . So there's some water moving there. On the flood the current goes left on the ebb the current goes right . Just so happens on August 4 1998 at 5m I tagged a 38" fish there. # A002351 ..17 tracking days later the fish was retired 5 miles away 3:30 pm 08-21-98. So 5 miles away in 17 days in the middle of August . I don't know what bait the fish would be following . Probably its nose . Less than 1% of tagged fish are ever recovered so I stopped doing it . Why put all those fish through that for less than 1% to gather information that will probably be used to fish them comercially and lead to thier demise . I quit .. still a bunch out there somewhere..

[Flaptail]

Migrating or just hunting? In the places I fish there is a noticeable abscence of fish in the day but come night time they come in from deeper water to hunt for din-din. I find on the outer cape most fish come with (travel with) the direction of the tide, the same holds for the Elizabeths in most places although once into a known feeding location they will stem it or loaf behind rocks waiting for the current coming at them to bring a morsel their way. If there is a known ledge or point under water that does not show even at low tide I favor fishing the uptide edge. I have found that bass like to stay positioned in front of it at night more to the outer fringes so that bait travelling down the shore with the tide and encountering the underwater obstruction of thier path of travel are trapped with no where to go but out and about. This is where the bass have them by the shortfins so to say. Just my two cents, for whatever that's worth.

[BigFish]

I watched schools of fish in close 2 afternoons this week....and they did not go with the current, they moved where the bait moved!

[Joe]

It depends on what you consider typical and whether or not the gamefish is primarily a pursuit or ambush predator.

For every two or three "typical" instances of fish behavior you'll encounter one atypical. It's why saying anything is fraught with pitfalls. There are a lot of people out there who don't believe striped bass are primarily nocturnal.

I suppose it depends on how much of an argument you are fishing for.

[JohnR]

Oh - and by "fish" I really mean striped bass....

Originally Posted by Flaptail

Migrating or just hunting?

Average moves in the course of a night, not specific moves. What I am looking for is if people have observed if fish typically move with the tide as they move from spot to spot or against the tide....

Originally Posted by Joe

It depends on what you consider typical and whether or not the gamefish is primarily a pursuit or ambush predator.

For every two or three "typical" instances of fish behavior you'll encounter one atypical. It's why saying anything is fraught with pitfalls. There are a lot of people out there who don't believe striped bass are primarily nocturnal.

I suppose it depends on how much of an argument you are fishing for.

I'm talking striped ones... I realize there is a pattern and the anti-pattern in about everything with bass, just looking for the edge. If a good amount of average and above average observant anglers feel that there is no correlation, that they move with or they move against the current then it is one more peice of info to tuck away to later contemplate when fishing.

[Fish_Eye]

Good question John. While diving, I spend most of my time trying to go with the flow and ride the current to conserve energy. Whether I’m cruising a beach or a rocky shoreline I expect to see the bass coming at me, into the current; this happens more time than not, but there are so many exceptions you can’t consider “into the current” as a general rule.

The biggest misconception that anglers have about fish and how they hold to structure is that they picture a bass sitting behind a rock like a trout in a stream, this very rarely happens.

You have to think of stripers as fish that are almost always on the move. If you have a favorite rock, let’s use “plug rock” at the mouth of the Charlestown Breachway as an example, don’t think it’s a great spot because bass (either one or a school) are stationed there waiting for the baitfish to flush out of the inlet. The same holds true for what you “think” you see when you read a fish finder and the sounder shows fish “stacked up” next to the down current side. In both cases the fish are not just parked there, they’re constantly milling around or “shoaling.” They visit these hot spots at various times during the day and then they go on to some other happy hunting grounds.

I can count on one hand how many times I’ve found bass stationed behind a rock, tucked into a crevasse, or waiting in a gully, and even when I’ve seen this happen, they’ve been transfixed on some particular type of bait. I would imagine they made their initial approach, much like a lion, and momentarily settled in an area where they could make a quick ambush attack. This doesn’t mean they spend the day there, they’re probably only in that spot for a few minutes and that’s it. In high current situations like “The Race” or in a narrow channel, bass are not glued to a certain location, not even inside the shadow line next to a bridge, they are on the move. It’s just that they confine their movements to the areas that create eddies or block the current and they move alongside the length of the shadow line.

If I’m surfcasting from a beach I’ll expect the fish to be running just outside the trough where the baitfish will be schooling and I’ll expect them to come in at the bait from any given direction...except off the beach. If I’m casting to the outside of a line of boulders I’ll anticipate that the stripers are working the edge…the same with a drop off. That’s why it’s important to work an area that is often productive for more than just a few minutes. You might be in the right spot but just not at the right time…and that could mean that fish are moving in and out of that area every ten or fifteen minutes…especially if there is bait around.