cross river jumping fish...

[el_pescador]

I've been fishing at cross river quite a bit recently.  About a 3 weeks ago I noticed some pretty decent sized fish jumping out of the water (completely out).  Of course you always see them jumping on the other side of the reservoir your boat happens to be at 

I'm not sure what they're eating... I haven't seen insects or anything that would all for those types of acrobatic jumps.  I've seen smallies make some pretty acrobatic jumps when attempting to throw a hook or lure... could that be them?  I've tried throwing top water lures and shallow running cranks with no luck.  I went out last weekend and saw some jumping from time to time but not nearly as many as 3 weeks ago.

[KenH]

I've seen trout jump clear out of the water. But I don't think it has
anything to do with feeding. When trout are feeding on the surface you
see backs and fins and swirls of water as they chase baitfish.

Ken H

[mike.com]

I've seen a lot of fish jumping out the water in cross river and i would say 85 percent are carp. cross river has a lot of them. i have a video on utube of some Chinese guys in my area 1 behind wades bait shop. check  out my channel utube mikecom 11 . also have a video called ghost fly fishing in cross river. it was the light, but it looks like ghosts on a boat.

[biggamee]

Maybe there jumping away from another fish trying to eat them...That was a theory I got from watching fish in a fish tank..Fish jump out of the water when they are being bothered or prey for a bigger fish..But who really knows???

[JMG343]

I saw the same thing in lake waccabucc a few weeks ago.  I got on the water just as the sun was starting to come up and the fish were breaking water like mad.  I really dont think that they were carp.  I know waccabucc has browns in it but not a whole shit ton of them and I didnt really think they were browns either just because of where in the lake they were breaking.  IMO it seemed like they were bass, but they were all out in open water, maybe 15-25 FOW, and a lot over weed beds.  What could they've been doing/eating?  I threw some pop-r's and some shallow cranks too and didnt get a look.  I dont know what was going on.  There are carp in Waccabucc but again, not that many and I just dont see them breaking as much, as often, and in the areas that these fish were breaking.  A few weeks previous I saw 2 big fish break over in the reservoir and those Im pretty sure, were carp.

[KenH]

If the fish that were jumping were "big" and made a "big" splash and noise,
and it weas over relatively shallow (5-20ft) water, I'd assume it was carp.

[el_pescador]

With the type of splash they made when jumping out of the water they seem to be pretty big... most of the jumping was happening in the 5-20ft range you mentioned although some (not as many) are also jumping a bit deeper, say 30-35ft.  I had no idea that carp could be so acrobatic or hunted down anything other than algae.

It might be interesting to try and catch one to see what type of fight it puts up.

[KenH]

Years ago, just for fun, I caught carp in the 15-20 lb range in Cross River from shore
(down by the causeway) in the middle of the summer using my 8ft 6in steehead
rod and 6 lb test. White sweet canned corn on a #6 baitholder hook to a 1/4 oz sliding
sinker. The hits are small taps that make you wonder if a sunfish is hitting your bait.
But when you set the hook they explode, really tremendous fighters. No acrobatics but they
have an enormous amount of musle. Landed 4 that day, each fight was like 10
minutes with multiple runs. I changed out my line before fishing again.

[Biz-R-OWorld]

I hooked one at Kirk Lake in Mahopac one time...there was a big school of them, they all looked like 30" or longer....all near the surface I threw a nightcrawler right into the crowd and 1 hit it... set the hook the carp took off....I was usuing a really small setup, and only had about40-50yds of line on the reel, I tried to stop the carp a few times, but he kept running until he finally spooled me lol...

[KenH]

haha, yea carp are like freight trains.

[el_pescador]

sweet corn huh?  I'm going to have to give that a shot! 

[KenH]

mike.com> "check  out my channel utube mikecom 11 ."

What's the whole URL?

[mike.com]

go to youtube.com and in the seach box put mikecom11 hit seach. enjoy

[Dae_Ma]

I've seen those fish arcobat 10 feet from our boat, mostly on days when there's a low pressure front pulling clouds into the area just before a rain in the late spring and summer...from what I can tell...Carp.  Saw the same thing happen while fishing in the small back section of Croton Falls.  Is corn legal to use???

[KenH]

Yes, in NY State it is legal to use corn.