In my never ending quest to "become one with the fishes", I am curious what species of fish "jump". It seems to me, that one sign of having found a good fishing spot (all other things being equal) is to see or hear fish splashing around. Let's assume you are in a spot that you know nothing about, but all intuition tells you that bass should be in this habitat along with other fish as well. I know carp like to roll on the surface doing their carp-y things, but not necessarily violent splashes/jumps (or do they??). Do any other species, namely something that would have no interest in lures used for bass, jump around?

On a side note, I noticed something I had never seen before this morning. I went fishing after work around 2 this morning (just got back and my wife is NONE too happy) so I went to a spot that is not really well known for bass, but has apparently produced some in the past. I heard some splashing around over by some weeds that I didn't really have a good angle on, but I tossed everything in my arsenal at it: worms, buzzbaits, lipless cranks, chatterbait, jig, you name it. This active fish (there were others making commotion as well) was having none of it. Then I thought it must be a catfish because I've heard they sometimes jump around for unknown reasons, but not too common. Ok, maybe Mr. Catfish will eat my worm? It's a stretch, I know, but I want to catch something. Nada. So I walk up the road and take a peak over the side of the bridge. I look down at the water and in the light of the street lamp, ~50 ft down, I can see what looks like LARGE things swimming around. I couldn't immediately tell what they were, but I kept staring and it was a whooolllleee slew of carp. Dozens of them sucking air at the surface. There was no way to get down on that side, so I walk further down the street to the other side of the bridge. Then I see it: the ENTIRE SHORE LINE is chalk full of freakin carp! I can see their little mouths sucking air and then I hear the noise that I previously thought was bullfrog and realize it is the carp. I have never seen carp do this, nor that many carp (in person). This is when I realize that I have been trying to bass fish.....for a carp. I wasted almost 4 hours trying to catch a carp with lures.

However, this story has a happy ending. A little while later, still before sun up, I notice another fisherman had shown up and he was fishing over on the bridge, obviously carp fishing. I walked over to him and asked if he came here often, if these wacky fish always do this, yada yada yada. Then he tells me about a spot on the same lake but down the road further that has produced some bass for him in the past. I get down there and it looks good: weeds, docks and overhanging trees. I immediately notice something, though: the fish jumping over here make a distinctly different noise when they crash the water. It is a much more violent splash, almost like an eruption in comparison. It is a splash with purpose. Woohoo! Bass! (I hope). I pull out my Spook because it's prime time: the water is like glass and the sun is just about to peek it's head out. "Bass" are jumping all around me, but want nothing to do with my spook. So I switch to buzzbait. Nothing. Pop-R. Nothing. Chatterbait. Nothing. I go through my arsenal. Nothing. I finally get a dink on a T-rigged finesse worm just as my wife texts me yelling at me for still being gone. I try to butter her up by telling her she is a good luck charm. It didn't work.

So, yes, this is somewhat of a fishing report but only because it helps illustrate my question: can you tell that the fish you are targeting, if basing that target on seeing them jump, is a bass? I know my story sounds as though I answered my own question, but there have been other times at other places too, where fish will be jumping and they are juuuust out of casting range. Teasing us shorebound fishermen.

Interesting read. Carp are known to do their carpy things on the surface and I have mistaken them for bass before as well.

I have a related story. Up on a lake I fish quite often, we always used to think the fish breaking the surface and slurping bugs down were trout. For like 10 years we ignored these fish that were all around us in the morning and evening. We fished dropshots plus the usual stuff down on the bottom and we caught our fair share of bass every season.

Well long story short, I finally decided to target these surface dwelling fish last summer out of curiosity...started throwing weightless flukes at them, and I was shocked to find out....these bug eaters were smallmouths all along. They literally had hundreds of tiny black flies in their mouths when we would get one to the boat. Ya never know!

i would bet that carp are whats jumping around so much; they do it everywhere

we dont have carp here in PR(and I hope it stays that way). But I constantly see small catfish going up into the surface and kind of rolling. It was confusing at first and I thought those were bass but Im not confused anymore. Tilapia could be violent here and there but the splash of a bass cannot be replicated by other fish. Its so violent they look like shark if its deep and the look like killer whales when they flush prey on shore. Its a sight for sure.

Lot's of species jump or feed on the top here in the Mid South.

Isolated fish might be largemouth or smallmouth bass, but most

are white bass, stripers or bait fish, skipjack in particular.

Unless you actually see the fish when it jumps, you can't really say for sure what species it is. Crappie break surface a lot on my home water, but I've caught bass and catfish when targeting them.

The only time I pay a lot of attention to surface action is when I know the bass are schooling and have the baitfish 'pinned' at the surface. This doesn't appear often in the natural lakes around here. Occasionally, I'll pick up a fish after I see or hear surface activity, but more often than not it doesn't happen. It's worth a little of my time, but even if I know for sure what species they are, if they don't respond to a few casts, I abandon the attempt and continue doing what I was doing.

BTW, you need to get the wifey hooked on fishing. Find a pond loaded with bluegill and let her have at 'em. It makes it much easier to be forgiven when she knows what the excitement and anticipation is all about.

BTW, you need to get the wifey hooked on fishing. Find a pond loaded with bluegill and let her have at 'em. It makes it much easier to be forgiven when she knows what the excitement and anticipation is all about.

But then who would watch the kids?? But really, she does like to fish I think, just not near as much as I do.

Up here in nh we have surface active Carpa I've actually caught some on top waters before

Go to YouTube and search for Asian Carp. You will see a fish that truly jumps out of the water, even into the boat sometimes. They jump from the vibrations of boat engines or even loud or vibrating lures in the water.

The carp around here jump completely out of the water. Not sure what they're doing but if you go out to any lake or pond around sunset you'll see plenty of airborne carp doing their thing. They're not the Asian carp either, just regular old common and grass carp.

whenever i go to my local lake i always see lots of silver colored fish jumping about 20 yards beyond my casting range. not sure what they are but theyre good sized. this guy i work with said theyre probably carp. sometimes i see bass swirl to the surface to grab something but i wouldnt really say they're juming. this one time i kept hearing huge splashes under the small bridge i was fishing off of. tried casting towarads it with no luck. 10 minutes later i finally see what it was. turned out to be a beaver. would have had fun trying to get a hook out of that mouth. the other day i saw 2 big trout leisurely swimming just a foot or 2 below the surface popping their heads up here and there to grab a bug. im not really sure what to use to catch trout but they wouldnt touch my plastic worm. if i had a net i could have tried to just dip them. probably wouldnt have worked but they were right there.