Floating in my Grumman and a 2lb bronze back jumps in my canoe. Startled me so bad I just about jumped out. Anyone who has had this happen I’m sure can agree with me.
i’ve
seen smallies jump way out of the water in the spring. it’s usually if i am wandering into breeding waters. they will assault you the whole time you’re there. it’s best just to back away.
Never had that happen.
I usually go all day looking for them and don’t find any.
- Big D
that’s funny , reminded me of …
– Last Updated: Feb-05-10 11:36 PM EST –
...... one of my ol buddys named Paul .
Paul was the kind of guy everybody liked , easy going and laid back , always had a beer can in his hand and was nice to everyone . He split up with his wife and moved away one day and we never heard from him again ??
Anyway , he was one of our gang and we spent lots of time together doing just about everything people do .
So one time I asked if he wanted to go along up to the river and camp and fish with us (wading for Smallmouth) , and off we all went .
Paul had not been much of a fisherman and I don't think he had ever been to the river , but he was having a blast . So we are out in the river , all well seperated by now and I hear Paul yelling and making a racket over on the other side .
I looked over to see and there he was thrashing around wildly swinging his arms , rod in one hand a beer in the other . You'd a thought he'd run into a Hornets nest .
What was happening was a whole heard of Smallmouth seemed to be literally attacking him . Even from my distance I could see them coming clean out of the water and jumping up to his shoulders and head ... his Giligan hat got knocked off (somehow) , and sometimes 3 at time were in the air around his head . This ain't no joke nor am I stretchin it , he was in about waist deep water , yelling and thrashing all over the place half losing his ballance trying to fend off these Smallies ... they bounced off of him many times and this went on for several minutes .
By the time it was all over , Paul had fallen once or twice , got soaked , lost his hat , nearly lost his rod ... but still had that beer in his hand .
That was the first and only time I had ever seen anything like that happen . It was crazy looking and we laughed ourselves silly about it , but Paul was acually somewhat frightened by it .
Where At ?
Wendy, are you talking about this happening recently? Was it in Ohio? I’ve been out a couple times recently on some southern Ohio streams looking for smallies but the water temps have been in the mid thirties and the bite has been non-existent. I need to find a stream where they jump into my boat in mid-winter …
DE
Dirty Ed
Not this winter, Last summer. ( Greenville Creek State Scienic River ) Midwest OH. Between Bears Mill and Covington. Best smallie fishing I know of around here.
c
I hit the head of a jumping chinook salmon with my rod on a cast once. It’s quite common, but a bit eerie, having 20lb+ fish jumping clear of the water close to you but that was the only one that startled me.
There’s a carp diversion barrier close to me. The idea is to block carp from their prime spawning grounds to limit their numbers, well in the spring they stack up like cordwood. Picture a few thousand fish in a solid mass six foot thick, was quite interesting rockin’ & rollin’ in here feeling the thuds of hundreds of fish against the hull!
Big smallie jump
I had a little smallie - about 12" or so - jump just as I was setting the hook. Darn thing was just off the bow of my Perception America (13’4" boat) when it jumped.
Well, it swung at the full extension of the line out right over my head and splashed down the same distance to the rear of my kayak. Only time I’ve ever heard of a 12" fish making a 13’ long jump.
- Big D
they can do that with a little help from
– Last Updated: Feb-13-10 3:37 PM EST –
...... the guy who has control over the line and hook , lol .
Reminds me of a time I had two of my nephews out with me , they were both in the early teen years .
One of them gets a bite and sets the hook like it's a monster fish in the deep . The hooks seemed to stick for about 3 seconds as the rod bent full half circle , and on the 4th it ripped out of the fishes mouth and proceeded to slingshot right into the other nephews hand ... stuck him past the barbs .
We discussed it and the boys wanted me to just clip off the hook and keep on fishin ... I thought about that but decided thier mother would kill me if he got all infected , so we headed in and I had the hospital do the cutting and removal ... My sis said we did the smart thing .
I had to do minor surgery on …
ShenandoahRiverRat once for that very thing. I even got to use his tools! I cleaned him up with my first aid kit.
The sad part is that we weren’t even on the river. He was packing up his truck to leave the campground and stabbed himself with a treble hook. I pushed it through, used his De-Barb tool to remove the barb from the hook and then it pulled back through the hole easy as pie. He didn’t cry or anything. Which reminds me… I owe ShenandoahRiverRat a lollipop.
I cleaned him with alcohol and gooped him up good with triple anti-biotic cream under bandages. He drove on home and probably didn’t think about it again.
- Big D
when i was fly fishing
as a teen, i used to tease the large mouth bass till they jumped out of the water and slammed down on my lure. even the little ones can jump fairly high.
Wendy
Thanks for the reply. I’ve only fished the Greenville a couple times, mostly spending time on the Stillwater when I’ve been over that way. Most of my floats are done on Scioto River tributaries. My fishing buddy “BuzzCat” and I have talked about doing a week-long smallie fishing tour of Buckeye streams in the spring. We want to hit creeks we seldom float and the Stillwater/Greenville is on our list.
DE
Flying fish
I have a small motorized skiff I use when I want to fish somewhere to far to paddle to. Last fall I was idling through some shallow water near Mexico Beach Fl. when I guess my motor spooked a large pompano. It hit me in the back of my head & ended up flopping in the bottom of the boat. Definitely startling. My friend who hadn’t had much luck that day kept saying all the way home, “I can’t believe it, the fish just throw themselves at you.” Stuff like that just makes fishing that much more fun.
I’ve had mullet do that
usually about a foot to 18 inches long, but never in a paddle craft - in a 14’ jonboat with a 3 horse engine my brothers and I used to cruise around the bay in when we were kids.
Bass
Only in my dreams…