How to catch these surfacing fish at Hamilton?

[fishfight]

How to catch these surfacing fish?

I was at Hamilton fishing around 9:30pm yesterday, and explored few spot. I Witness Fish surfacing everywhere in hamilton on the few spot that I had explored. Some people were using worms on bobber to try to catch them, but no luck . I tried with small spoon lures , and no luck as well. I also saw carp just swimming 2-3 ft below water surface. One guy said he landed a sheepheads few nights ago, while another guy said he landed a channel cats while aiming for carp.

At one spot, The locals told me the fish were perch surfacing, when I went to another spot, other locals told me they were silver bass surfacing. Some of the fish were larger then a lb creating big splash.

There were hardly any wind, nice calm waters, bright sky and stars visible everywhere, with 3/4 full moon. Temp was roughly around 15 degrees, and mosquitoes or bugs was somewhat a nuisance.

Water level was at least 4-5 feet higher than in the past, but fishable. I am estimating the water depth where I was fishing would be around 15-25 feet deep.

Here is a cool image of a Dragonfly I took last night, just almost finish morphing and coming out of its cocoon.

 

[ChromeAddict]

Could they be large Gizzard shads? I saw a big school of them in the Toronto area a couple weeks ago. They were chasing each other on the surface and splashing. They followed my lipless crankbait but always turned away at the last second. I finally got this one to strike it before it got dark. It seemed like once the sun went down they stopped splashing on the surface.

 

[TheTallFisherman]

Sounds like carp rolling to me!

Carp are in mating season right now and chase each other/splash about. That being said, when they are mating they rarely feed (feed much less).

Doesn't hurt to target carp, if there is carp surfacing, that means there may be some actively fishing carp near by!

 

[fishfight]

Sounds like carp rolling to me!

Carp are in mating season right now and chase each other/splash about. That being said, when they are mating they rarely feed (feed much less).

Doesn't hurt to target carp, if there is carp surfacing, that means there may be some actively fishing carp near by!

Definitely not carp, I know when carp are active in their mating mode. They are decent size fish by thousand generally nothing over a lb surfacing or catapulting out of water everywhere. Because some anglers claimed they landed yellow perch, I could not be sure whom to believe. Some fish create decent splash.

Last year , when I was downtown and mississuaga during this time of the year, I saw smaller species of fish all under 5" long and flat , also surfaced , and seagull were indulging on them. But this time, these fish are bigger in size and created louder splashes.

 

[fishfight]

Sounds like carp rolling to me!

Carp are in mating season right now and chase each other/splash about. That being said, when they are mating they rarely feed (feed much less).

Doesn't hurt to target carp, if there is carp surfacing, that means there may be some actively fishing carp near by!

Could they be large Gizzard shads? I saw a big school of them in the Toronto area a couple weeks ago. They were chasing each other on the surface and splashing. They followed my lipless crankbait but always turned away at the last second. I finally got this one to strike it before it got dark. It seemed like once the sun went down they stopped splashing on the surface.

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That is the biggest shad I have witness by far, it must have felt like a bass fight. I was fishing till past 1 am, they were splashing from 9:30pm on ward and really aggressive, I know they were attracting their mate, non stop surfacing and chasing after other fish, as I could see them with my flashlight, and the few places I went were all well lit . Quite a few anglers fishing past midnight, on all the location I had fished. I was hoping with the amount of surface attention they are making, it should attract other predatory fish such as sheepheads or pike and walleye.

 

[MuskieBait]

Agree they are likely Gizzard Shad. If they were Yellow Perch, White Bass or White Perch, you would most likely catch them using worms or any minnow imitating lures.

The small 5" or smaller flat fish, at this time of year, are most likely Alewife. They can be caught with a sabiki rig. I've caught them for friends who want to use them to make herring plugs for salmon trolling.

If the surfacing fish are Gizzard Shad around 1lb or larger, they almost have no predators except large Pike at that size. They bodies are too tall for even trophy size Walleye and much too big for Sheephead unless there's a 20+lb Sheephead around.

 

[ChromeAddict]

That is the biggest shad I have witness by far, it must have felt like a bass fight. I was fishing till past 1 am, they were splashing from 9:30pm on ward and really aggressive, I know they were attracting their mate, non stop surfacing and chasing after other fish, as I could see them with my flashlight, and the few places I went were all well lit . Quite a few anglers fishing past midnight, on all the location I had fished. I was hoping with the amount of surface attention they are making, it should attract other predatory fish such as sheepheads or pike and walleye.

The school I witnessed were all that size. I always thought shads were small baitfish, not that large. I was also hoping that they would attract pike but didn't catch any that night. After it got dark we could still see them swimming and chasing, just not on the surface. I guess they can have different behaviours at night.

 

[trouttamer]

They are gizzard shad, theyll be around a couple more weeks, they are filter feeders so almost impossible to catch on a hook. you could try a sabiki rig for them