Question "big Balls Of Fish And Predators"

[greendiver]

Hi guys, got a question and a story...

I went fishing yesterday, it was a special day...I know there is a lot of fish in Gibraltar, but this was unusual.

Mackerels, bonitos, squid, and banks of bogas everywhere..( do not know the english word for bogas), it was a good day, caught a couple of big mackerels a nice pargo, and a very nice sea bass.
(again...my spear did not go through a bonito...:vangry ).

Now...just when I was calling it a day and was swimming towards the beach, it was little bay by the way, near the beach I saw all this little fish.....in huge banks..like huge balls of fish.

These fish were not afraid of me, it was very cold but I decided to wait and see.
Suddenly I see about a group of about 25 sea bass, a few really big ones.
They saw me and swam around me, staying out of range ofcourse: vangry .

I stayed there longer, I was shiverring but had to see this.

Unfortnately I did not find a way to catch any of them, I did some espetto´s below the fish, played dead on the surface....nothing.

Can anybody tell me how to aproach this situation?

Is this usual behaviour, or were there other predators around?

Thanks for your help!!

Greets!!

 

[spaghetti]

Small fish make balls when predators are around. In these cases, a classic aspetto is no good tecnicque because predators are concerned with small fish and will ignore you. The best thing if possible is to hide and let the ball come towards you: let the ball pass over you, then predators will arrive frontally. If there's no hiding for you, just stay around, let them hunt and bide your time to shoot while basses are distracted by their hunting action.
--But I don't understand: did the basses too make a ball formation, as if they were afraid of a bigger predator? If so, could be barracuda or "pesce serra" were around (pesce serra in italian, pomatomus saltator in latin.) Here in Tuscany in the last years i've often seen groups of frightened basses escaping as hell, then cudas or serras came by.

 

[sickbugs]

wow bogas seem to have a wide range, ive found a few in barbados

anyways, my preffered way of hunting baitballs is to stay about 15 feet away from them, motionless, on the surface, the predators will usually ignore me and pass between me and the bait, giving me a great lineup shot at them, especially when they are just circling the bait and being a nuisance to all the small fish.

this is probably my favourite way to hunt spanish mackerel, and i also just enjoy being there with the baitballs, ive had a ball of pilchards packed really thick, swam down under them, then came up through the middle, and they were just keeping far enough away from me that i was in an almost black hollow inside the middle of them, u can feel the pulse of them swimming when its like that, really cool.

 

[Ted Budion]

As if the bait ball wasn't weird enough, their predators stayed far from you. Usually when predators are on the feeding frenzy mode, they couldn't care less of our presence. Sometimes the victims may even "glue" on you trying to escape their fate.

And barracudas and bluefish (pesce serra's name in English) are dangerous in feeding frenzy mode, look out! Particularly the latter. Blufish may be small compared to sharks, but no horror movie can duplicate the slaughter of bluefish feeding frenzy, they even bite other blues. It's like a samuray sword fight in a packed football stadium:martial .

After the deed is done and the school moves out, there's always a weird smell of watermellon on the surface. Scientists say that during those frenzies, bluefish probably eat less than 40% of the fish that was killed.

 

[spaghetti]

Bluefish is pesce serra in english, thank you Ted. Terrible fish, fearless and furious: spearos must be careful because they're bite is strong and sharp. My brother in law sustained a bad bite on his hand while trying to stab a speared bluefish: no serious injury, but his 3mm glove was to throw away. I can witness.
Basses just run as hell and behave like bait when bluefish is around.

 

[Ted Budion]

Basses just run as hell and behave like bait when bluefish is around.

Trust me, they are bait! As well as anything around, including divers:hmm

 

[Huan]

Bluefish can behave just like Marine Pirhana's!

 

[miles]

But they do taste so nice!!!! YUMMY!!!!

Bluefish/Tailor/Elf/Shad (Pomatomus saltatrix) is my FAVOURITE fish to eat!! We rarely spear them here, but very often do catch them on rod and reel. The bigger class fish 2-8kg's have the ability to bite through stainless steel cable that we use as biting trace!!! Vicious buggers!!

Regards
miles

 

[spaghetti]

Come on guys, are we kidding, are we? bluefishes will try to bite you if speared, but I've never heard that they may deliberately attack humans. Any "fatalities" reported in your waters?

 

[Dobs]

Aaaa bluefish is my favourite eating fish too! :t They are the top predators in Black Sea and I love hunting them.
The little ones (up to one kilo) are real bullies and always come to check me out while doing aspetto
I was recently told a story about one of the spearfishing pioneers in Bulgaria. He and his friends were hunting bluefish. They were driving along the coast dressed in their wetsuits watching for bird action over the surface (a clear sign that bluefish is smashing baitfish). When they found what they were looking for, they jumped right in the middle of the action :martial After a few minutes one of the spearos came out of the water with pieces of his suit hanging allover the place :crutch
A trick to attract the attention of bluefish is to move the speargun a little and make the flopper flash like a small fish while doing aspetto. No self-respecting bluefish will miss the sign of an "easy meal" and when it comes right at you, you all know what to do... KABOOOM :martial

 

[greendiver]

Small fish make balls when predators are around. In these cases, a classic aspetto is no good tecnicque because predators are concerned with small fish and will ignore you. The best thing if possible is to hide and let the ball come towards you: let the ball pass over you, then predators will arrive frontally. If there's no hiding for you, just stay around, let them hunt and bide your time to shoot while basses are distracted by their hunting action.
--But I don't understand: did the basses too make a ball formation, as if they were afraid of a bigger predator? If so, could be barracuda or "pesce serra" were around (pesce serra in italian, pomatomus saltator in latin.) Here in Tuscany in the last years i've often seen groups of frightened basses escaping as hell, then cudas or serras came by.

Hi Spaghetti,

The basses would suddenly appear not attacking the baitball, well I did not see that, disappear and show up after a couple of minutes.

Like they were swimming around the baitball....

The strange thing was that it was in a place, near the beach and some rocks were you would, well...I would not, expect anyhing really.

Maybe Shane and memo can tell me more...

Greets!!!

 

[spaghetti]

Hi Spaghetti,

The basses would suddenly appear not attacking the baitball, well I did not see that, disappear and show up after a couple of minutes.

Like they were swimming around the baitball....

The strange thing was that it was in a place, near the beach and some rocks were you would, well...I would not, expect anyhing really.

Maybe Shane and memo can tell me more...

Greets!!!

It's a strange behaviour from the basses not attacking a big, shiny, tasty ball of bait. Especially becasue the bait itself must have a reason to make a ball...Could be really about bluefish or cudas around...
--I miss our turkish friends Shane, Memo and Murat: it's a lifetime I don't find any posts from them. I hope they're just fishing all the time (and that Murat is marching straight...)

 

[greendiver]

It's a strange behaviour from the basses not attacking a big, shiny, tasty ball of bait. Especially becasue the bait itself must have a reason to make a ball...Could be really about bluefish or cudas around...
--I miss our turkish friends Shane, Memo and Murat: it's a lifetime I don't find any posts from them. I hope they're just fishing all the time (and that Murat is marching straight...)

Dude...they are still around and fishing!!!
Maybe it is to cold for them rofl rofl ....no....they are still around.
well Memo and Shane,....Murat is marching.. by the way... Shane is Gibraltarian!
Greets!!!