Thread: So, just to clarify a little fishing myth...

Hope u ate him!


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I'm with you.

Good job on landing the carp, down here, they just jump in my boat! P.S- they do eat good.

From my reading, they do not have a true stomach. With no stomach, they must feed continuously. They feed on both phytoplankton and zooplankton.

Therefore if they are ingesting baitfish, they do not have the capacity to digest them.

I don't think this clarified anything. LOL

As mentioned prior, these fish feed on plankton. They do feed by cruising with their mouth open. If they swim into a lure, they will likely be hooked in the mouth. Ive caught a couple myself.

Dr Speck, thanks for the post. Since most think they will not bite a bait, sad to say, but if they are that thick in the lake that someone could like you could find their mouth to get a hook set, they must be everywhere since they would have to run into the bait to get hooked! Hope this is not the case.

Originally Posted by perchjerker108

.... but if they are that thick in the lake that someone could like you could find their mouth to get a hook set, they must be everywhere since they would have to run into the bait to get hooked! Hope this is not the case.

That is most definitely the case. If you want to see it firsthand, I'm talking about the silvers here, take a bay on Barkley Lake right now, like Demumbers. Idle along the shore about 30 or 40 yards off of it, you'll eventually run into the mega school hanging out in that bay. Last time I did it, they were hanging near the back of the bay where the feeder creek comes in, they got to jumping by the hundreds. I had about a dozen in the boat within seconds of them getting startled by the engine, they didn't quit jumping until I turned the engine off. If a guy wanted to fill the boat, all he has to do is get them jumping like that, and then sit in the middle of the frenzy with the motor idling and they will just keep jumping into the boat. Last time I did that I only aimed to see one or two to show the kids, well they got hit by the fish coming into the boat and it greatly scared them and they have been upset about it ever since. They talk about it every time we get in the boat and won't let me go anywhere near the back of a bay now.

It's been my experience that you typically encounter the silvers jumping in 5 ft of water or less, if it's much deeper than that they seem to stay down....they won't always stay down in deeper water, but more times than not they do. I think when they get spooked their instinct is to dive down and when they hit bottom they come rocketing back up and out of the water, that's just my theory though.

The bighead, they don't jump, and there's a BUNCH of them. If you want to see the thousands of bighead, go out on the main lake on a flat calm day where the water is as smooth as glass. You'll see them swirling near the surface for as far as you can see. It's not uncommon to see their tails or fins coming out of the water like redfish in a shallow marsh. They will come by the boat, cruising/feeding just barely under the surface in big schools; you usually see the white of their mouths first. If you bump the trolling motor, all those fish will spook and make a massive swirl but they won't jump, bighead don't jump. The bighead have been in there for many years, but people don't realize it since they don't jump.

I believe mr dux has caught a couple in the mouth while pulling crankbaits on ky lake. I’ve seen videos of people targeting them with rod and reel and catching them in the mouth.


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