Any ideas?

[Gorilla_in_Manila]

Hi,
The pics and reports of bait balls and fish smashing the surface has got me thinking about a trip to fraser a couple of years ago. A disturbance on the surface was moving around and when it came close enough to the rocks a Waddy, little 1 or 2cm shrimp or tiny whitebait could be seen jumping out of the water. They were so small though, I couldn't tell for sure. Fish weren't smashing the surface or anything, but seemed like something was herding them up and giving them a bit of curry from underneath.
Chucked the smallest slug I had into it a few times but no takers. Just curious if anyone knows what sort of bait it might have been and what sort of fish might have been feeding on them.
Cheers
Jeff

[Brissyguy]

Hi Jeff,

Used to live on the canals at Bribie and have been greated a lot of mornings by bait balls similar to the one you are describing.
Dolphins were the culprits there although you never saw them until they manouvered the ball into deeper water.
Every time they got near the shallows, the dolphins would back off.
Then they would take turns diving through the middle of the ball whilst the rest of the school kept balling them up.
Awesome sight I must admit.
Someone told me it was a training exercise for the young ones as the larger dolphins prefer much larger fare.

Cheers,
Rich.

[mackmauler]

Jeff, all kinds of weird little baitfish around, really eye opening checking the offshore fish guts, they eat a lot of toads and leather jackets and other stuff i wouldnt have a clue about, youd think dart would be the main fish around there eating small stuff, they are one of the main customers of the small slugs.
Rob

[Gorilla_in_Manila]

Cheers Rich & Rob,
Thanks for the replies and your thoughts.

Rich,
Never sighted a dolphin around them, and unless they could hold their breath for about 30minutes, I'm sure I would have seen them surface somewhere if they were nearby. See dolphins hearding tailor all the time, funny how you only see them having a rest or doing the herding; never seen one screaming along near the surface after fish.

These things were so small, all they did to the surface was flick or leap out and land again with a combined look of little rain drops. The surface in that area was just a sort of matt finish like you see during light rain.

Rob,
I was thinking it may have been a school of small dart, but then again it was out in clear water away from any sort of foam or wave break. Would have thought a dart might have had a hit at the little slug also, but perhaps not if it is so much different in size.

I was wondering if it might have been yakkas, baby tailor or something like that. But then again, you would expect them to be getting nailed by something bigger. Probably what I should have done was tie the little slug onto the end of a bait jig and jig that through them. Would be nice to know for the future if this was the case and get some fresh livies off the rocks.

Cheers
Jeff

[Jeremy87]

late december last year i saw lots of small bait fish like that at the pin. In a rough patch of water they had been pushed up against the bank and a couple of pelicans were getting into them. We got one bream and another boat took about 3 off the edge of the school. In the clamer water around the huts there were quite a few bait balls like this aswell with a couple of small bream hanging round them.
Jeremy

[Gorilla_in_Manila]

Jeremy,
Thanks for the reply and thoughts.
Not sure it would be bream in my case though since these were mostly a couple of hundred meters off waddy point rocks in about 10m of water (I guess). They only moved in within casting distance briefly and then was herded or wandered out into the deeper water again.
Sounds like these tiny bait are a bit more common than I thought.
Cheers
Jeff

[basserman]

we get alot of schools of very small whitebait alot down here in port mac and we have done the same in chucking the very smallest slugs at them but wasn't untill we used soft plastics that we found most of the time it was schools of small 10cm and under chopper talyor

[jeffo]

as rob said... they coulda been anything, most of the mackeral and tunas i have caught have spat up a mixture of froggies, tiny toad fish and white bait.

[Gorilla_in_Manila]

Cheers B-man & Jeffo. Guess if I can hook something out of it next time, I'll know.

[jeffo]

hey jeff, could you actually see the size of the bait fish? or are you assuming they were that size because of the "rain" affect they left on the surface... the reason i say this is because pillies and sometimes slimeys will do the exact same thing (eh rob? ). pillies especially. just a thought.

[Gorilla_in_Manila]

Jeffo,
Yeah, they came within about 20m of the rocks. Whilst I couldn't make out details, little clear bodies of some sort were leaping around. Well they looked sort of clear, which is why I was thinking they might be a sort of little shrimp or krill. There didn't seem to be any fish swirls or splashes, they just seemed to be jumping in all directions like fleas. Don't think it was little drops of water flicked up by pillies or something just under the surface, seemed to be the critter themselves jumping out.
Cheers
Jeff

[jeffo]

ok then.. disregard my last comments then little fish it is!

[rusco]

Hi Jeff
Have spent many years going to Waddy.The baitfish were probably whitebait or baby hardy heads. The terrorists schooling them up would be either a couple of long toms or gar

Rusco

[Gorilla_in_Manila]

Cheers Rusco, nice if it was gar. Might take a float and a few tiny hooks with me next time.
Ya never know what you are going to get off that place, bloody brilliant.