Do fish school up with similar sized fish?

[7Deuce]

One theory I've heard from experienced fisherman is the idea that fish of a similar size will school up together. For example, if you get into a fish that is in the range of 15 lbs, there are likely other fish in the range of 12-18 lbs around in the area. If you start getting several hits from shakers in the 15-20" range it might be worth changing locations as there is unlikely anything worth keeping in the area. The theory was that a 16" fish would be pressured or hunted by a 30lb fish and fish of a similar size would be more likely to cooperatively push bait etc.

Last night I was fishing for a few hours near some structure. Every time I made a pass near a bait ball in one area I would get 1 or sometimes 2 shakers in the 15 - 20" range. I knew I was on a good school of bait but after 3 or 4 passes with nothing but smalls, I moved on. My strategy to move paid off. I picked up a nice teener a mile or so away but saw a guy at the table with a nice fish taken from roughly the area that I left.

What would you do? Stick and stay? Move on?

Is being on the bait good enough? Do fish school up based on a food source or do they school up with fish in the same weight class? Do you stay but change the lure, depth or speed?

How do you get out of the shakers and into the keepers?

thanks,

7-2

 

[tincan]

If I'm into shakers I'll generally stay in the same area for a bit but drop depths to the bottom of the bait ball or just below.

 

[7Deuce]

Anyone else have any thoughts on this? I hate hooking shakers for a couple reasons:

1) The mortality rate must be horrible due to the fact that the hook is often huge vs. the fish
2) if the shaker is small enough, it might go unnoticed for some time after hook up which just means you are just boating

Does everyone just add depth?

thanks

 

[Kisinana]

If I hit shakers I generally will stick to the area but change depths and sometimes tackle. Last month we hit springs and bait at 75 feet but all were slightly undersized. dropped to 140 and we were rewarded with 3 teeners in 20 minutes.

 

[GDW]

Shakers migrating out wont school up with mature fish heading home but that doesn't mean they can't be in the same area.

That said migrating fish will school together a school of chinooks can include fish from 8-24lbs for example.