Schools of (very small) stripers(?) in GunSight Canyon

Status
Not open for further replies.

Pegasus

Well-Known Member
We had literally thousands of 1" to 2" fish that just hung around the sunny side of our anchored boat for 3 days a week ago. Where we were anchored, we were not near any brush or protection for the fish, just sandy beaches (water clarity was about 20' and the fish stayed in the 3' to 10' depth range). The fish looked like small stripers to me as they had a visible stripe on the side of them, but the experts here I'm sure would know better than I what they were. We never did see any predator fish attacking them and they had no interest in eating anything that we tried to feed to them, but they were eating off the surface quite a bit. They stayed on the sunny side of the boat, did not go under the boat or go to the shady side of the boat. Hopefully this all means something good to you avid fisherman - i.e. that these will all be BIG fish in the coming years. Photos attached - and please let me know what type of fish they likely were if you know what would be schooling like this in this size range this time of year - I've not seen anything like it myself in the past. The school size varied, but was always greater than a couple of thousand and at times seemed like 5000 (estimate based on the area I could see them)
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20171011_1135001.jpg
    IMG_20171011_1135001.jpg
    275.7 KB · Views: 131
  • IMG_20171011_1143324.jpg
    IMG_20171011_1143324.jpg
    245 KB · Views: 128
  • IMG_20171011_1147526.jpg
    IMG_20171011_1147526.jpg
    217 KB · Views: 123
Last edited:
Definitely shad, maybe Gizzard shad.
I was going to say in my previous note, they definitely didn't look like gizzard shad - at least how larger gizzard shad look, but at 1" to 2" you could surely be right, especially if small gizzard shad have a very visible stripe down the side of them. Thanks for your note.
 
Hard to no for sure, just a hunch. Wayne would be a better judge of that.

Netted this half dead 2lb female Gizzard shad last week in Padre bay area. She was loaded with eggs.
 

Attachments

  • 1012171238a~2.jpg
    1012171238a~2.jpg
    407.8 KB · Views: 97
Saw the same thing in the cut. Tried to net some shad and they turned out to be small stripers. Also ran into in Wahweap Bay headed toward Lone Rock. Thousands of them around the boat.
 
We had literally thousands of 1" to 2" fish that just hung around the sunny side of our anchored boat for 3 days a week ago. Where we were anchored, we were not near any brush or protection for the fish, just sandy beaches (water clarity was about 20' and the fish stayed in the 3' to 10' depth range). The fish looked like small stripers to me as they had a visible stripe on the side of them, but the experts here I'm sure would know better than I what they were. We never did see any predator fish attacking them and they had no interest in eating anything that we tried to feed to them, but they were eating off the surface quite a bit. They stayed on the sunny side of the boat, did not go under the boat or go to the shady side of the boat. Hopefully this all means something good to you avid fisherman - i.e. that these will all be BIG fish in the coming years. Photos attached - and please let me know what type of fish they likely were if you know what would be schooling like this in this size range this time of year - I've not seen anything like it myself in the past. The school size varied, but was always greater than a couple of thousand and at times seemed like 5000 (estimate based on the area I could see them)

Wow I need to see one of the fish up close to be sure. I hope to see schools like this on our netting trip. I will report back.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top