I get a call from my father last night who was just coming back from Block Island. He said that on his entire run back, he saw fish rolling. Not schooled up, just a single here or there. He said they weren't going fast, and that if was in the Keys, he would have said Tarpon. Just kinda lazily rolling on the surface. At one point he saw maybe ten do it in a concentrated spot, took out the fly rod (his work in progress, I may add) and caught nothing but his pants and the deck of the boat (we're working on that, hopefully Sunday with some Fast Fish). Anyway, I said Bass and he was shocked. He didn't think that was the answer. The fish were doing this in structureless 150' water. Any thoughts?
I have heard of large bluefish showing this behavior but usually in water that is between 72-75 degrees. I have seen large singeles doubles and small pods of 5-15 fish daisy chaining. Mark Sedotti had told me that this is very common and usually occurs in deep water where there is pleanty of bunker and flats or a large sand bar very near. Speculation from many people say this is some sort of mating ritual. I am not a Marine Biologists so I could not honestly even venture a guess. Just a thought.
This reminds me of a fairly common sight out on Billingsgate Shoals where blues "raft" along the surface with occasional fins rippling the surface as if in some kind of trance. The giveaway sign is the sharpness of the tail verses bass, and the presence of more green/blue/aqua color than stripers in the general coloration.
One day I spotted such a raft mid-day in bright sunshine but the color seemed a little gold/brown - so we putted over and found it to be a gigantic rafting pod of 26-36" stripers. We carefully cast to the edges and enjoyed solid action until they disappeared into the depths.
Small poppers, like the kind you can cast on a 9wt, have been the best midicine for waking these fish up and getting them to eat in my experiences.
I have seen false albacore do this in deep water off the NC coast in winter...can't even get close to them. Very strange. Not feeding, just rolling along. Enjoying the scenery I guess...
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