Shallow bass with their dorsal and tail fins sticking out of the water?

[wannabeangler]

Night before last we had a monster storm that raised my favorite small, 90-acre lake by 2 feet, turned it into a mud bowl and dropped the surface temp a few degrees from 69 to 65ish.

I usually target the shallow flats and grass with frogs, buzzbait and worms and typically when it rains and the lake is up, bass here will still hug the shoreline ... wherever the shoreline ends up.

Yesterday afternoon/sunset we found 6 or 7 two-four pound bass in water so shallow, their dorsal and tail fins were sticking out of the water. For the most part, each bass was sticking to an area no bigger than 2-3 square feet. Sometimes they'd go out of sight, but give it a minute or two and their backs would be sticking out of the water again for minute or so ... usually as they slowly circled around.

Each one of these bass reacted the same to whatever we threw ... absolutely indifferent. We tried weightless worms, frogs, buzzbait and flukes. If we worked slow and dropped bait right on them, they'd ignore it. If we worked fast and aggressive, they'd slowly meander to another side of the grass. Not once did I see any of these fish do anything close to aggressive.

At first, I thought it could be some late spawners, but at this temp, they're normally deeper. Plus this area is normally not even underwater and it was all grass with no clear patches nor was there ever a second bass with them.

So my questions:

-a- What were these bass doing?

-b- Was there ever a shot of getting them on a hook?

[Catt]

So my question:

Where they bass or carp?

[Smiths.R]

They were bass...how anyone could possibly mistake a Carp for a Large Mouth Bass is beyond me.

I too have seen bass in very shallow water, or even if they are in deeper water, they will be at the very top of it, with fins sticking out of the water.

No clue what they're doing though...

[aarogb]

So my question:

Where they bass or carp?

X2.  More than likely they where Carp.  I experinced the same thing a few weeks ago and I started flipping when I saw them and I hooked into one only to see it was a Carp.  Thats when I left the area to go find some Bass.

[wannabeangler]

Definitely bass. One of them let us get within a rods distance. The canoe grounded out and I couldn't get any closer. If I could, I would've just scooped it up and taken a closer look.

And I'm with you Smith, not sure how anyone confuses bass with carp. If someone can't tell the difference, it's probably just called a "fish."

[Catt]

...how anyone could possibly mistake a Carp for a Large Mouth Bass is beyond me.

...

LOL...Everyone says that until they realize it was carp they were flipping to for the last couple hours.

It is not strange to see carp & bass working the same area at the same time.

I'm completely convinced that when bass are chasing live prey they will often times hit nothing but live prey.

[Tin]

See it a lot on the shallow water swamps around here when they are prespawners and cruising the shallows. Either way they are typically hard to catch, but I will wait for them to stop cruising, they will typically stop at the nearest overhead cover or rock. So then I will just put the jig or tube in the area and it generally works out well as long as you notice them first.

[Smiths.R]

If someone pitches at a carp for 45 minutes before realizing it's a carp, they've never seen a carp before. And what carp let's you throw at them for that long? Every carp I see is quick to get away from me.

[natalex1208]

You can put me on the list of people who has never cast toward a carp more than once.  I have no problem telling them apart from a bass.

[L a r r y]

They are hanging out drinking beer smoking cigaretts, talking about the next fish they are going to spawn with, leave em alone and let them get their PIMP ON

[Paul Roberts]

I've seen this, typically late post-spawn into summer until water temps reach something near 80. I've taken it for heat soaking/sunning. It's happens on sunny days in which the shallows heat rapidly. I've caught these fish too -usually a weightless worm or killed jig. Somewhere in my journal I have a description of such a day in June here, in which the shallows were crawling with bass. Many came so shallow their backs and dorsal fins broke the surface. I commented for one big female, "Ooooooooohhhhh, that feels goooood." ;D

Curious, what were your conditions like? Was it post-frontal sun?

[Smiths.R]

I think that is a really good hypothesis.  Everytime I see it, it's quite warm out, and the sun is shinning.  I bet that's exactly what they're doing.

[senile1]

...how anyone could possibly mistake a Carp for a Large Mouth Bass is beyond me.

...

LOL...Everyone says that until they realize it was carp they were flipping to for the last couple hours.

It is not strange to see carp & bass working the same area at the same time.

I'm completely convinced that when bass are chasing live prey they will often times hit nothing but live prey.

To add support to Catt's comment, knowledgeable people can mistake bass for carp especially when one only has a tip of a fin or tail to make the determination. You said your lake was a mud bowl so this would have been the case, and if you were quite a distance away you wouldn't have had a very good view of the portion of the tail and fin that was sticking out of the water. Since you were able to move up close to these fish you were able to see what they were but Catt's point is still valid.   

[mr.mallard]

]spinnnnerrrrrbaitttttt!!!!!!!!...found this once. fished close enough that they didnt feel threatened by the bait.fish are up this shallow eating food and nutrients that are washed in from the shoreline(of at least thats what ive read) 

[WRB]

Lets play this back; muddy water on the rise and 2lb to 4lb bass tailing with backs or dorsal fins out of the water, very shallow water. About right?

I have only been bass fishing about 60 years and can't remember ever seeing bass tailing or having their dorsal fins up while swimming in shallow water.

Catt had right; are you sure you were seeing bass?

Catfish are a possibility and so are carp, bass....very unlikely.

Bass will cruise spawning flats, not so shallow that you see any part of the fish out of water, unless they are feeding aggressively and pushing bait against the bank. If this was the situation the bass would be extremely fast swimmers, you couldn't get close without spooking them.

Bass in the act of spawning, not likely that tight to the bank in rising water. Carp and catfish act exactly like the fish you witnessed. All these fish, including bass have dark silhouettes in off color water, very difficult to determine the species from a short distance without seeing the fish come out of the water.

Just curious; how did you estimate the weigh in off color water with poor visibility? Water distorts the fishes width, so the only method is judging the length.

WRB

[shimmy]

i think i am man enough to admit that i have seen this before as well. I pitched towards that stupid fish for half an hour before the light registered in my head...it's probably a carp! So i motored closer and sure enough it was. Happens to the best of us.

[RichF]

I saw the same thing today. They were definitely bass. Got close enough to see the entire fish. We just had some hard rain yesterday. The river isn't high here in NY and its maybe in the mid to high 50s. I figured these fish were doing something in regards to spawning. Seems early to me but I've never seen bass do anything like this.

[igtat900]

You sure it wasnt a carp?

[fourbizz]

OBNOXIOUS

[BassAssasin2]

The two ponds i fish have the exact same thing. And yes they are bass because i have caught them, usually a top water frog works. But they are sometimes as many as 10 in one little area and when they swim they push a wake of water in front of them and you can see their dorsal and tail fins sticking out. And unless carp put on a bass suit then they are bass. And i have no idea why they do it.

[SuskyDude]

I too have seen AND caught LM doing this.

Was fishing a pond when I noticed fins poking out in the middle of a large shallow flat, a few sets of them. Water was less than a foot deep.

They weren't doing much. Not really chasing, but not exactly stationary.

Caught two of them on a weightless senko, missed another.

It was mid-May, a chilly morning with clear skies and no wind. Lots of other fish I saw that morning were close to shore on nests. These fish didn't "seem" like nesters, but I could easily be wrong.

There are no carp in this pond.

[evrgladesbasser]

Night before last we had a monster storm that raised my favorite small, 90-acre lake by 2 feet, turned it into a mud bowl and dropped the surface temp a few degrees from 69 to 65ish.

I usually target the shallow flats and grass with frogs, buzzbait and worms and typically when it rains and the lake is up, bass here will still hug the shoreline ... wherever the shoreline ends up.

Yesterday afternoon/sunset we found 6 or 7 two-four pound bass in water so shallow, their dorsal and tail fins were sticking out of the water. For the most part, each bass was sticking to an area no bigger than 2-3 square feet. Sometimes they'd go out of sight, but give it a minute or two and their backs would be sticking out of the water again for minute or so ... usually as they slowly circled around.

Each one of these bass reacted the same to whatever we threw ... absolutely indifferent. We tried weightless worms, frogs, buzzbait and flukes. If we worked slow and dropped bait right on them, they'd ignore it. If we worked fast and aggressive, they'd slowly meander to another side of the grass. Not once did I see any of these fish do anything close to aggressive.

At first, I thought it could be some late spawners, but at this temp, they're normally deeper. Plus this area is normally not even underwater and it was all grass with no clear patches nor was there ever a second bass with them.

So my questions:

-a- What were these bass doing?

-b- Was there ever a shot of getting them on a hook?

Maybe it has something to do with oxygen content???? You say they are always near the shore regardless of where the waters edge is, is this where the most vegetation is? That would provide the most O2 content I beleive. And If the temps are cold then the vegatation in the shallows gets the most sun causing the most photosynthesis right? Not posistive on all this but makes sense to me, why else would a bass be so shallow unless it was suffocating?

[blakebrown71]

This is an old post but looks like I'll bring it back to life.  

 

I found this thread from a google search to figure out what the bass I saw today in a local pond were doing.  The pond is roughly 3-4 acres, typical greenish brownish tint, ~1-2 feet visibility.  Lots of submerged rocks along the first few feet of shoreline.  

 

The past few days I've been fishing during my lunch break (mid day), 50-60 degree air temp, my guess is water temp was similar. Lots of sun along the shoreline. I've noticed the exact same things described.  Fish seem to be "digging" down into the rocks and soft bottom with their dorsal fins sticking up.  Today I saw one that seemed to be fairly large and actually wondered if it was a small carp instead of a decent bass.  Unfortunately I didn't have any tubes with me so I tossed a jig right to it for a while before it disappeared.  Also ran a 1/4 oz spinnerbait through the area for a while after I lost him.  No reaction from either presentation.

 

I would've settled on the idea that it was a carp if it weren't for some of the posts in this thread, and the fact that I saw this exact same thing at the same pond a few days ago, tossed a 4" senko to it and caught a small bass on the first cast.  I definitely think the larger one I saw today was a bass as well.

 

Unfortunately I don't have an answer as to what they're doing, that's why I'm here.  Definitely sounds like a trend for small ponds though.

 

 

[jr231]

That's a carp 

[Airman4754]

I've seen it at least three times that I can remember and in water where there is nothing but bass, trout, and panfish. It's only been in super muddy water. The 7.4lb northern strain I caught last year did this in about 18" of water. 

 

I've seen it on TV before too. It might have been Hackney. There was a huge female with her whole tail and about three inches of her body out of the water with her dorsal. It's where I got the idea to throw all the way onto the bank with a spinnerbait which is what they did to not spook her. It was also in muddy water.