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

[WRB]

7 hours ago, blakebrown71 said:

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.

 

 

Judging from the photo your pond isn't on the rise or muddy, you caught a spawner!

Tom

[OCdockskipper]

At the Elite tournament on Lake Havasu back in 2015, Tim Horton found a bed fish that looked to be a large male.  He spent about 45 minutes on it, finally got it to bite, and brought to the boat a 3.5 lb Redear sunfish.

 

If a former AOY can make this mistake on a lake with crystal clear water like Havasu, I don't feel so bad when I make a half dozen pitches to the shadow of a rock...

[CroakHunter]

1 hour ago, OCdockskipper said:

At the Elite tournament on Lake Havasu back in 2015, Tim Horton found a bed fish that looked to be a large male.  He spent about 45 minutes on it, finally got it to bite, and brought to the boat a 3.5 lb Redear sunfish.

 

If a former AOY can make this mistake on a lake with crystal clear water like Havasu, I don't feel so bad when I make a half dozen pitches to the shadow of a rock...

The things I'd do to catch a 3.5lb red ear are illegal in 27 states. Lol

[Pro Logcatcher]

I have seen extremely shallow bass in an overgrown pond in the woods before.The water was really shallow so I don't think they had a choice in the matter unless twenty of them piled in the deeper middle section.

[toni63]

I saw one wallowing around on a shallow flat a couple years ago, tail out of the water, full dorsal fin exposed. I was pretty surprised to see it, it kind of looked like it was rooting around in the mud for crawdads or something that had gotten its interest. I threw a big buzz bait about 10 yards past it and worked it right past it's tail. It turned around and destroyed that thing like it hated it.

 

So that was fun.

[scaleface]

1 hour ago, toni63 said:

I saw one wallowing around on a shallow flat a couple years ago, tail out of the water, full dorsal fin exposed. I was pretty surprised to see it, it kind of looked like it was rooting around in the mud for crawdads or something that had gotten its interest. I threw a big buzz bait about 10 yards past it and worked it right past it's tail. It turned around and destroyed that thing like it hated it.

 

So that was fun.

 

I saw the same thing one fall day. I thought it  was a carp .I pitched a worm at it and caught a 15 inch keeper .

[Rdozz0915]

I too have experienced this at my go to pond i thought it waa carp the whole ive been fishing it. Get a little rain temp drops and around dusk on the dot you start to see em. Swimming around dorcel fins. I jokingly told my wife today whatch this and i hit one in the head with my swim jig and it demolished it caught my pb large mouth 11pound 2 ounce and the crazy thing is there are bigger ones. All doing the same thing about 10 of them swimming on the surface with their dorcel fins out and they dont want to bite anything ive thrown out of them. One of them is literally laying in 7 to 8" of water if that i could of grabbed her off the bank atleast 7 plus bass. Can onyone tell me whats going on ive never in all my life seen bass act this way

[buzzbaiter83]

Saw the same thing on Douglas Lake last month. Water was up as high as I’ve seen it there. Could see dorsal fins shallow in people’s yards around trees. Told my partner they had to be carp. Threw a frog for the heck of it and caught one. Caught several more. No big ones but definitely surprised me. Maybe eating night crawlers that got flooded out of their holes. I’ve seen them do that in my backyard pond up shallow in rising water. 

[Glaucus]

Bass do this all throughout the summer in one of the ponds I fish. They get so shallow that you can see their dorsal fins poking out of the water. They're always facing the bank too. Just sitting and waiting to attack. Minnows are all along the shore, and frogs sit right at the bank too. You'll see or hear the bass blowing up on minnows or frogs all the time. The pond is crystal clear. Aside from getting a great visual on them to 100% identify them as LMB, I've also caught them while they do this. I'll cast past them or onto the shore and drag a weightless trick worm right to them and they destroy it. Those who haven't seen it, well that sucks, but bass do do this. Because *you* haven't seen it doesn't mean that it doesn't happen. The world doesn't revolve around your personal experiences.

[Deleted account]

On 5/5/2010 at 10:17 PM, WRB said:

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

Put me in this camp. In all the times I've been on the water, I've only seen bass cruising with fins out of the water a handful of times, and never in muddy water. Fish look very different in the water, and its easy to misidentify them, even in clear water and good light. Which is not to say that there aren't times when there is a good bite in a foot of water, I've certainly seen that plenty.

 

[Cheri]

This exact thing is happening at my pond. I saw it yesterday evening. I saw 3-4. Two of the 4, I saw up close. Exactly as others described, so shallow their dorsal and backs and tail fins all showing. In our pond, they are definitely large mouth bass. (I find it odd that so many respondents focus on that aspect of the story.) Our pond is very low right now. It's always been pretty mirky (can only see bait under water within first 12 inches) except for undisturbed areas right on the edge. We think possibly due to weather patterns they could be spawning late? I guess I shouldn't worry about the beds being so shallow? The bass we catch seem to be healthy and thriving.

 

Edited to add: the bass were very difficult to distract with topwaters or plastics thrown within 2 feet. I even accidentally dropped an oar in my aluminum boat while investigating 10 feet away, and he/she sat still. It wasn't until I literally pulled one within inches or cast literally on top of them when they'd thrash and scatter, only to return within 20 minutes or less.