School of fish in Jockey Cove

[coley]

I was speaking the other evening with people I rent from for the last 20 or so years who have a place in Jockey Cove near Wolfeboro Bay. They said they were up last weekend and off the end of their dock, they observed very large schools of fish swimming back and forth multiple times in relatively shallow water. They thought they might have been bass (due to some striping), but didnt think bass swam together in such large numbers. They have been going there since 1963 and have never seen this. Any thoughts as to what this might have been??

[Orion]

Not much to go on here, but if prominent vertical stripes, they are probably yellow perch.

[Jeff Furber]

More than likely it was perch but could have been smallies, when I was up to Winnie last week, our friends fished in the Dow, Swill, Devens Is area and they reported schools of 50 or more small smallies in that area.
I fished near Pine, Beaver, ThreeMile and Browns Boat Basin and did not see any of that. The water was colder in our part of the lake and maybe that made the difference.
Our friends who did some salmon fishing on Sunday morning caught, salmon,lakers and smallies, side by side and they all were chasing a big school of alewifes. jeff

[hilltopper]

I'm thinking you meant smelt, not alewives. Alewives in Winni would not be good....

[Jeff Furber]

Yes, I stand corrected , I meant smelt.....

[Coolbreeze]

Back in the eighties, we caught tons of shad or white fish. They swam in schools and hammered spinners. It was in a cove near springfield point.

[Grant]

You'll see large schools of white perch in the lake. Last I saw was at the Diamond Island Navy test site, while diving. There were hundreds. I'm not 100% sure they were white perch, but they looked like them.

[ApS]

"...they observed very large schools of fish swimming back and forth multiple times in relatively shallow water..."
In the calm waters of today, it was easy to see about a hundred swimming back and forth in about eight feet of water. They were all about 1¼ to 1½ pounds, shaped like bass, but with all-green fins. A few of some larger fish swam with the pack (but above them) and had coarser, worn-looking scales. None were observed to be feeding.

Bass, with their browner backs, were stationary in shallower waters nearby and in the shade of the dock.

White Perch sounds right. :look: