What kind of fish jump into your boat (river fish)?

Question

My husband and I were watching AFV and there were several videos of people boating on a river. There were fish jumping all over the place and they kept jumping into the boats. We were wondering what kind of fish they were. It's always on rivers and not oceans. I'm assuming they're not in Utah, we've never seen them here. Thanks ahead.

Answer 1

The common carp was brought to the U.S. in 1831, and has been widespread for a long time. In the late 1800s they were distributed widely throughout the United States by the government as a foodfish.[5] However, common carp are not now normally prized as a foodfish in the United States. They are often known to uproot vegetation and muddy water through their habit of rooting in the mud for food, and are thought to often have detrimental effects on native species.[5] However, common carp are prized in Europe as a sportfish, and angling for common carp is enjoying increased popularity in the United States.

There has been a dramatic rise in the populations of bighead and silver carps where they are established in the Mississippi River basin.[6] Bighead and silver carps feed by filtering plankton from the water. The extremely high abundance of bighead and silver carp has caused great concern because of the potential for competition with native species for food and living space. Because of their filter-feeding habits, they are difficult to capture by normal angling methods.

Silver carp have become notorious for being easily frightened by boats and personal watercraft, which causes them to leap high into the air. The fish can jump 8–10 feet (2.5–3 m) into the air, and several people have been injured by collisions with the fish. They can grow to 40 pounds (18 kg) in mass. Bighead carp can grow even bigger.

Answer 2

Go to youtube and look up:

fish jumping into boat

Watch the whole video, toward the end it's insane - and I can't get a bite the whole day sometimes!

There are a bunch of different types of fish that have been known to jump in boats, but these are definitely not Carp or Catfish, they seem like some kind of large schooling baitfish.  They look a lot like Bunker that run in huge schools here in New England.  I've seen them breaking the surface and jumping a bit when they're getting attacked by Bluefish under them, but never something like this.

Answer 3

Isn't it only when they are spawning?

Answer 4

They are Asian carp, and they are becoming a big problem in many rivers in North America.

Answer 5

It's Carp...we gotz em up here in Canada too, eh!

Answer 6

Round these parts  ( Australia ) you sometimes get a mullet jumping into the boat.