The first time I saw such a frenzy of fish breaching the water’s surface, I was kayaking on the Persian Gulf. What in the world prompted all those fish to adopt such an odd behaviour?
The next time I saw such action, I was on a fishing charter (as a non-fishing guest) on our own Main Lake. This time, Kerry Reed (of Reel Adventures Fishing Charters) explained: these are fish fleeing predatory fish; likely, they are Kokanee leaping out of the water in an attempt to escape the piscivorous Rainbow Trout. (Indeed, it is their diet of Kokanee that helps make our local Rainbow Trout so large.)
Neat! I wonder if I could take a picture it? The difficulty is that the behaviour is usually both distant and ephemeral.
On Saturday while on a beach at Procter, I again spotted a group of frenetically leaping fish. While the activity was well down the Lake, I just pointed my camera and clicked and clicked—maybe some pictures would work out. Two did—well, sort of. The distance made for rather low-resolution shots, but, they were good enough for plausible identification. Joe Thorley (of Poisson Consulting) has suggested that my pictures do indeed show Kokanee. Both the behaviour and look is characteristic of the smaller immature Kokanee during their lake phase, a time when they are silverly and somewhat trout-like in shape, albeit slightly more streamlined. Further, it is likely that the predatory fish are trout, probably large Rainbow Trout.
So, these marginal shots likely show the frenzied fleeing of Kokanee from Rainbow Trout.
Thanks for the topic and the pictures, Alistair ! ! I have been an avid fisherman most of my life and have never seen this phenomenon.
That’s amazing you got as close a shot as you did! Irv and I have seen this also when out fishing on Kootenay Lake and it is quite fascinating and very frenetic – that’s why I’m so amazed at your photos.