I had mentioned an experience that had happened to me a while ago on another thread and thought I would share it. This may be common knowledge to many of you; it was just interesting to see for myself.
A while back I was picking up trash around the bank of the reservoir. I always watched for anything interesting in the water. Well, as I go along I see this school of about a dozen bass, all from 6-12 inches roaming the bank. I stop and stand still so as not to spook them. They cruise by, checking all the nooks and crannies in the rip rap. As they get past me, I see another group of bass slightly farther out. These are 12-16 inch fish, about 4 of them. I figure they follow to scoop up anything the smaller fish kick out.
I start walking long with the group to see if they come onto anything and to see what happens. I suddenly realize there is a third group that is trailing even farther out. Two very good sized fish that are about twenty feet out from shore bring up the rear.
The small fish make it around the corner and travel down the bank another fifty feet or so, then all turn at a certain point and head back the other direction. Soon the mid pack turns as well as the two big fish. I have to continue working so I head down the bank without them. I only get another fifty or so feet when another school is heading toward me. The exact same scenario plays out; mid size fish following, and then I see one HUGE fish taking the trailing role. He is staying just at the point where I can make him out. I decide to follow these back the opposite direction (the trash can wait) to see what they do.
This group traveled down the bank and suddenly turns around. At the exact same spot as the first group! As if there was an invisible line neither group was to cross. I stop in my tracks to let them pass me. I lose site of the big trailer for a little while when suddenly it turns up quite a ways behind the group. It sees me and heads out from the shore and goes deeper out of sight.
The rest of the gang didn't see me and couldn't have seen the big fish head out, but they in turn all head toward deeper water. Somehow they realized the pack leader sensed danger and followed his lead. I went on down the bank trying to see if they just went farther down, but didn't see them again.
The interesting things I took away from this event:
-These fish seemed to have "territories" and boundaries that each group respected
-The large fish wasn't just using the little fish to do his dirty work; they seemed to be a team
-Fish can notify each other of danger other than just visually
I haven't seen this happen since (I've since become the boss and don't pick up trash as often) but I have to think this plays out regularly. Since the reservoir has very little cover, most of our bass must be schooling fish. I never do very well on the big res for bass, but this showed me that they are there, if you can get them to bite. If you start picking up small fish, cast farther out ad you may pick up the larger trailers.
