anybody else experience the giant schools of fish ram-rodding into you on saturday afternoon??? not sure what kind of fish they were, but the dolphins were going crazy. I was out for an hour on the north end, and never went more than a minute or so without a fish ramming my leg or board....kind of freaky
I noticed it on Sunday, and dolphins were frequently breaching a few feet away from me trying to corral the schools of fish to the surface.
How big of fish are we talking about? Could have been a lot of things really. This time of year fish that go east or south for the winter are moving back into the bay. I'd guess it was one of the drum species: croaker, spot, puppy drum or some small black drum. Could have been big reds or blacks as well. Bluefish and trout are also migrating back into the bay in big schools right now. The dolphins might have been picking them off as they were in tight schools moving into the bay. A prime feeding opportunity.
Can't say I really noticed it around Dam Neck Sat. I'd been working all night and running off about 3 hours sleep so I probably wasn't even paying attention. Fun little waves coming thru on Sat though.
When I lived in Florida, there were tons of bate fish that would flop on your board. Tons at Sebastian. Just remember, where there are schools of little fish, there are likely bigger fish feeding on them.
EXACTLY. that's all i could think about when i was in the water. LOTS of dorsal fins swirling just outside the lineup as well....i kept telling myself they were all dolphin fins...but you never know...
this time of year it was likely schools of menhaden, which are referred to as 'bunker' up north. Schools get pretty dense in the late fall thru early spring with fish typically about twice as long as your hand.
I didn't make it out Saturday but I've experienced this before. At the North End as well as 37th St., I've seen them in the middle of summer too. I try to keep my distance. It's cool to watch the dolphin corral them but a little freaky when you get surrounded. But why would it be less safe if there's dolphin around? I've heard of people getting raped by dolphins, but I imagine that only happens to dumb college girls on spring break.
Dolphins will use you as a means to trap or slow their prey. I have seen it happen a couple times. Their smart and know that the fish will hesitate or at least get their head rocked by a dangling leg.
It's easy to tell a Dolphin from a shark, they act completely different when feeding not to mention Dolphins breathe and have horizontal tail fins. Usually if you see a school of sharks attacking bait fish you will only see their tail fins thrashing around and rarely see their dorsals--it's opposite with Dolphins. Also, it's common knowledge that Dolphins are more of an apex predator than sharks. Sharks will avoid a pod of Dolphins at all costs because 9 times out of 9 they will wind up dead from busted gills. I have witnessed this in the lineup at WB, CB and OIB multiple times--always resulting in a dead shark washing up on the shore. I'm sure it's not 100% but it's close enough for me. As for the bait fish, I agree it's probably Menhaden--especially if the school is about the size of a football field. One thing in our area of the coast (SE NC) the push of Menhaden brings big ass Cobia (70 - 100+ lbs) into the shallows near the inlets. Cobia look almost exactly like sharks but behave completely different. They are very curious and love hanging out around things floating in the water--like surfers and boats, so they can often be mistaken for a shark. The way we catch cobia offshore is to get over a reef, spray menhaden oil in the water to create a slick and "chum" by throwing live menhaden overboard. We have jigging rods with big bucktails tipped with either menhaden or blue crab that we toss out when we see a big brown blob making its way to the boat. Usually it's a cobia, but it can be any various species of shark too, either way it's a good fight and Cobia is mighty tasty.
It is true that dolphins Generally detour sharks because they travel in pods. When a shark comes into the shallows they are generally riding solo. It is also true that they eat the same things, in the same places. There is almost ALWAYS a fin to be seen in frisco too. That place is bad, supposedly they even have a population of hammerheads that hang out in the cove. I was surfing on the south side of the Rodanthe Pier one summer morning. There was a lot of marine activity so I made sure to not contribute to the buffet (laying prone between waves). About 10 minutes in I hear a bunch of commotion coming from the pier. No big deal. I took a wave towards the pier and then I'm like WTF is that? is that a ... what? Some fisherman snagged a 5 or 6 foot bullshark and the genius attepted to try to reel it up to the pier. Doesn't take a physicist to decide that isn't happening... Anyways, when I'm about 20 yards from it he starts yelling to get out of the water because he is cutting the line. I have surfed with sharks before, but this f*ckng thing was thrashing and splashing and now heading right for me. I froze and sat still and knew it was about to go down. It must have swam right under me and headed out to sea. Yeah, that's my best shark story.
