Couple weeks ago we saw a couple flying fish, yesterday we saw three more. I think I figured out that the shadow from our sails was spooking them. We've seen them near the kelp beds off Catalina Island, but this is the first time I've seen them in broad daylight in near coastal waters. This El Nino is really bringing a lot of sea life with it, so far so good. Kinda like waiting for a hammer to drop when it starts raining in earnest.
Flying fish
- Thread starter Calif. Ted
- Start date
We see 'em all the time offshore, day and night .. They tend to "air surf" from the tops of swells but in flat water appear to be spooked and run off with only the tail touching for propulsion.. Love to watch the little guys. I have been hit in the head by a couple over the years in the middle of the night.. quite a surprise!
Yep, I saw them too. On Saturday (I'm in the same harbor as Ted).
Only about 3 miles offshore. Never seen them that close before.
When I saw 2 of them fly at the same time, only one word came to mind: Skeet.
we get them up here in the summer, they make the best bait. I, rig them kinda like a ballyhoo, use a short shaft 6/0 behind the head, wire threw the gills to the hook shaft (twist once or twice, bend the twist back) three foot 150-200lb fluorocarbon leader, troll at 6kts. they're like tuna candy.
A few years ago while sailing south along the west coast of Fl. at night I felt something hit the lifelines with a pretty hard shudder. Not wanting to go to the bow at night I waited until first light. To my amazement there lie a flying fish cut in two, blood all over the deck. Apparently tried to leap over the bow but didn't quite make it. Thought a bat that landed on my deck in broad daylight ten miles out was incredible. The things you see out there sometimes. Amazing!
Roland
s/v Fraulein II
Roland
s/v Fraulein II
Cited from Personal Narrative of the 19th century Prussian naturalist Baron Alexander von Humboldt in the Book of the Sea by A.C. Spectorsky, 1954, p. 266-267: "From the twenty-second degree of latitude we found the surface of the sea covered with flying fish, which threw themselves up into the air, twelve, fifteen, or eighteen feet, and fell down on the deck. I do not hesitate to speak on a subject of which voyagers discourse as frequently as of dolphins, sharks, sea-sickness, and the phosphorescence [bioluminescence] of the ocean."... "I doubt, however, whether the flying fish spring out of the water merely to escape the pursuit of their enemies. Like swallows, they move by the thousands in a right line, and in a direction constantly opposite to that of the waves. In our own climates, on the brink of a river, illuminated by the rays of the sun, we often see solitary fish fearlessly bound above the surface as if they felt pleasure in breathing air."
Frequently, while anchored overnight at Santa Barbara Island [46 n.mi. WSW of San Pedro], large flying fish [California flying fish] will spring onto the deck, or slam into the topsides of the boat. I've thought, with all due respect to von Humboldt, that this might be caused by the large sea lion predators there which hunt at night, cruising near the boat submerged, leaving spectacular bioluminescent trails in their wakes. Native range of this eastern Pacific species of flying fish reportedly extends from Baja California to Oregon.
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They are actually quite common in warmer waters off of South Florida ... we often find them on deck in the morning after sailing all night... you can usually tell that one is on board by the smell...they really stink when they die... Not sure why...but you always know when there is one on the foredeck or coach roof.
Yes true...but they are still relatively fresh ... One wouldn't think that the smell would be so bad so soon. But seriously, they are very common in the gulf stream off of South Florida. We often find them in the bellies of Mahi that we catch while sailing to Bimini.