Hi everyone I had a question maybe you can answer for me. I was shore fishing a local lake and I kept seeing a school of some type of fish rolling on the surface of the water about 100 feet from shore. I couldn't make out what kind of fish they were, and they were too far for me to cast to, even though I tried and came close a few times, I did not get any hits. I've only seen bass and bluegill in this lake, and if I had to guess I would say they were bass. If they were bass, is it common for them to roll the surface in schools like they were feeding? I mean, you could see their back coming out of the water, and it was a pretty large group, maybe 10-20 fish.

Thanks.

well what you might have saw is something i see everyday at my lake. schools of bass will corall a huge section of baitffish around the middle of the lake then chase them towards the surface to trap them. often you'll see the baitfish jumping out of the water to get away from the bass

bass hit the surface violently most of the time, don't see em rolling on the surface too often. I've seen gar do this however.

I always see carp doing that here

Without actually putting a fish in the boat, it's usually a guessing game.

Large bass tend to be solitary, and typically produce an explosive sound exceeded only by an alligator.

Schoolies (juvenile bass) are normally responsible for those whitewater jumps that come and go.

but a school of adult crappies can create a surprising amount of surface commotion (They've fooled me more than once)

If white bass reside in your lake, they typically create even more whitewater than bass.

commonly attracting feeding gulls and terns.

Roger

My guess is that they were Carp.

It's the carp spawn most likely. The females roll to squeeze the eggs out. If you reel in some weeds and see little maroon dots, those are carp eggs.

It is carp for sure...I see it here too.