Synchronised swimming

I went fishing today on the river Nene and I was pleased getting an hat trick on the last day before the closed season..

Anyway when I was playing the second pike and its body appeared near the surface kiting from left to right and I saw something that I had never seen before.

Another pike swam alongside my hooked fish in a synchronised fashion following its every turn and direction.

When I got the pike close enough to chin it and capture my prize, the other pike then eventually disappeared.

Anyway I took a rough guess and told my mate that maybe it was a male following a female and it was to do with spawning, the captured pike was carrying a full belly although it wasn’t that large!

Any ideas experienced piker’s??

Cheers

Andy247

There is a stretch of the Hampshire Avon that I know where you will often see two Carp and a Barbel swimming together almost as a shoal.

On hooking either of the Carp or the Barbel the other two fish will usually follow the hooked one to the net only turning away from the bank at the last moment.

It is fascinating to watch but I've only ever succeeded in catching the Barbel and the smaller of the two river Carp and never the larger one.

Yes, it's not an uncommon occurance Andy. It can, and does happen, not only at the back end (pre-spawn) either. A lot of the time it goes un-noticed, unless the water is exceptionally clear or you're wearing polarized glasses.
It's easy to explain because close to spawning time when small males are vying with each other for prime position alongside a female. At other times I often wonder if they are behaving like chickens in a chicken run. One finds food and the others chase it, kinda like not wishing to miss out.
At times like that, if you're very crafty, it's possible to net them both, as I and others have done on rare occasions.

Peter Jacobs said:

There is a stretch of the Hampshire Avon that I know where you will often see two Carp and a Barbel swimming together almost as a shoal.

On hooking either of the Carp or the Barbel the other two fish will usually follow the hooked one to the net only turning away from the bank at the last moment.

It is fascinating to watch but I've only ever succeeded in catching the Barbel and the smaller of the two river Carp and never the larger one.

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Yes Peter it was fascinating to watch and it's sods law that you've never netted the larger carp..lol

---------- Post added at 06:09 ---------- Previous post was at 05:17 ----------

Derek Gibson said:

Yes, it's not an uncommon occurance Andy. It can, and does happen, not only at the back end (pre-spawn) either. A lot of the time it goes un-noticed, unless the water is exceptionally clear or you're wearing polarized glasses.
It's easy to explain because close to spawning time when small males are vying with each other for prime position alongside a female. At other times I often wonder if they are behaving like chickens in a chicken run. One finds food and the others chase it, kinda like not wishing to miss out.
At times like that, if you're very crafty, it's possible to net them both, as I and others have done on rare occasions.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the comments Derek and before I forget, the Storm Suspending Shad you recommended, it’s a predator catcher mate and worked well for me last week, especially at dusk.. thanks mate

I did know that the males are competitive with another and will follow the females prior to spawning. As I said to my mate, I felt that was the reason why it happened. I guess I was one of the lucky ones that’s seen it happen due to the clarity of the water, however, I have never been as lucky or should I say as crafty as you Derek and landed a brace .lol

Regards

Andy

I had a similar experience around april last year where I hooked a scraper double and had it followed to the bank by no less than 5 of its similarly sized friends. I'm pretty sure had I been quicker on the ball I could have netted another one of them. Maybe there were more but I could clearly see 5.

On the same day I also had it happen again with a couple of smaller pike both following my lure to the side only for me to get the shock of my life as when I was watching them eyeing up my lure another pike swooped in and hit it!

I've seen it happens with carp once