Jumping Fish in the Canning?

I was out fishing in the Canning river last night for bream, around the Shelley area. And every now and then there was a fish that was full-on throwing itself out of the water. There were probably a good 15-20 m of shore at the closest and it looked like it was jumping 2 or 3 m across the water at a time! And not just one jump either, sometimes it jumped 5 or 6 times in a row, one after the other. Unlike the small baitfish that are around up that way, that can make small splashes and jump a small distance, this fish was a decent size, hard to say exactly because it was a long way away, probably around ~15 or 20 cm, and quite a slim fish (Not deep in the body like a bream). I only ever say one at a time, but i assume that there was probably a school of them?

I was wondering if anyone had seen similar things in the river? Or knows what sort of fish it was and why it would do that?

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Buz's picture

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Date Joined: 28/08/07

Could have been Giant

Thu, 2010-02-11 12:01

Could have been Giant Herring maybe??????

Blake.T.'s picture

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mullet??

Thu, 2010-02-11 12:06

mullet??

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Date Joined: 04/01/09

its mullet 100%. They always

Thu, 2010-02-11 12:16

its mullet 100%. They always do that. Sometimes in massing schools too

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Date Joined: 02/02/09

Yeah, I'd say mullet, I've

Thu, 2010-02-11 12:22

Yeah, I'd say mullet, I've seen a heap around in the como shallows lately

shanedm's picture

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Date Joined: 25/06/09

i agree with the mullet

Thu, 2010-02-11 12:52

i agree with the mullet theory. used to be real big ones down near applecross that used to do the same thing.

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Posts: 87

Date Joined: 09/02/09

there's been quite a few

Thu, 2010-02-11 14:22

there's been quite a few mullet active in the canning recently, and some of them can get very big. i've only ever seen mullet as big as you describe jumping once or twice, but it's most likely a mullet. Last year i had quite a lot of success casting a bit of shelled coral prawn towards where the mullet jumped to hook up on bream to 35cm (undisclosed Shelley location :P ) not so much this year tho :(

incidentally, what would be the best (most enjoyable) way to catch these canning mullet anybody? Does the bread on a hook thing work? or flies or something? lures?

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Date Joined: 25/01/10

Well the mullet theory

Thu, 2010-02-11 15:52

Well the mullet theory sounds like it explains the situation. They must be getting spooked by bream, although i wouldn't have thought a bream would try and attack a mullet...would they? Anyhow we were getting lots of bites whilst the splashes were going on (we kept casting towards the splash) and managed to land a few to 25cm, but once the splashing stopped, so did the bream bites...

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If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there'd be a shortage of fishing rods

wopjrb's picture

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Date Joined: 05/03/09

mullet

Thu, 2010-02-11 19:15

theres some real massive ones near apple cross like 3kg + and around 60 or 70 cm

Faulkner Family's picture

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definately mullet. 2 things

Thu, 2010-02-11 22:20

definately mullet. 2 things that could explain their jumping , 1/ being harrased by something much bigger like a bull shark or a mulla. 2/ is that they are picking insects off the surface of the water, i have witnessed both and yeah they can jump a fair way

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Feral's picture

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stupid mullet down this way

Thu, 2010-02-11 23:18

stupid mullet down this way just seem to jump because they like to :)

heaps in the esturies down south here and in geraldton where i was from beofre and the little shits are always teasing you by jumping around

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Date Joined: 04/01/09

Mullet jump for several

Fri, 2010-02-12 04:22

Mullet jump for several reasons. Few i do know is that they jump to herd baitfish, scare them to where they want em. They also react to light badly. Like as if you shine a torch in our eyes, we're blinded and disorientated. They'll jump from that as a defence mechanism while they're disorientated so they're not so vulnerable in that state. Another is to avoid obstructions in the water. Like everyone knows mullet arent scared to swim right to the shoreline, as they're feeding or hunting in shallows they'res plenty of obstacles in the way during their frenzy time. So they jump, i suppose you could say if you got one thing on your mind and u know the direction you needed to go, you'd do the same. And as FF mentioned, they're not scared to and will definately break water surface to feed coming from underneath, ingulfing and leaping through the air at the same time with good accuracy and speed.

Hope that helps.
Its funny how not many realise or give credit on how smart some fish actually are.

wazzbat's picture

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Date Joined: 19/01/10

I've seen schools of them in

Fri, 2010-02-12 05:34

I've seen schools of them in 1 foot of water down at Mosman Park.  They can get quite big and they were jumping occasionally but only one or two of them would jump at a time?

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MickyDav's picture

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We used to row the old mans

Fri, 2010-02-12 10:46

We used to row the old mans old wooden boat as fast as we could back in the late sixties near the old riverton bridge , over the sand bank area and they would jump in the air and end up in the boat ,we would get up to a dozen at times .