Ever seen a fish (scaled variety) surfing waves like dophin do?

frog's picture
frog started the topic in Friday, 27 Jan 2017 at 8:24am

In the Ments in November a perfect 4 foot peak (righthander) popped up and right at the tip of the peak a foot long silver fish was swimming in the lip. As the wave began to break it very actively took an angle along the face and the swam hard to get in the right position then surfed along inside the lip line for a fair while. It looked purposeful and like it was having fun! Never seen that before.

groundswell's picture
groundswell's picture
groundswell Friday, 27 Jan 2017 at 8:43am

Amazing no ive never seen that exact thing but i did once see a GT or some sort of large fish swimming into a slab in Sumatra ill dig up a photo of it.

Blowin's picture
Blowin's picture
Blowin Friday, 27 Jan 2017 at 8:58am

Yes. Lots of times.

zenagain's picture
zenagain's picture
zenagain Friday, 27 Jan 2017 at 9:15am

Dart in Qld surf.

goofyfoot's picture
goofyfoot's picture
goofyfoot Friday, 27 Jan 2017 at 9:21am

How's that little double up ridge in the photo of groundswells wave. Ohhhh I'd like to tucking under that right about now

Craig's picture
Craig's picture
Craig Friday, 27 Jan 2017 at 9:48am

Haha, good spotting, been a while getting barreled ay.

goofyfoot's picture
goofyfoot's picture
goofyfoot Friday, 27 Jan 2017 at 11:09am

Way too long Craig

freeride76's picture
freeride76's picture
freeride76 Friday, 27 Jan 2017 at 12:03pm

Mullet will cruise in swells all day every day on their spawning runs.

Canman's picture
Canman's picture
Canman Friday, 27 Jan 2017 at 2:27pm

A mate of mine told me about the surfing fish at Lakey's. Said it would be swimming around underneath you as you waited for a wave in the take-off area then catch the wave and surf it with you disappearing for a while before reappearing out the back again. Slightly reluctant to believe it wasn't until I got to Huu that I saw it for myself. Sure enough early one morning there it was surfing the lefthanders off Lakey Peak. It looked like a Mahi-mahi about a metre or so long. Quite a sight an beautiful to behold shooting the curl on some glassy 1 - 2 footers. Since then I've seen fish doing this on not just coral reef but sandy and rocky breaks. My theory is that it's primarily hunting strategy with the animal (insert - fish, dolphin, shark, whatever) saving energy and developing speed by utilising the wave to carry it along. The animal can cover a lot of territory surfing in the wave without so much as a swish of the tail. Another advantage is that it is hidden from any potential prey by being up in behind the wave face - that way the prey has no direct line of sight of predator. When it surfs over the top of some unsuspecting fish swimming along the bottom in the surf zone with a beat of the tail the hunting animal is on top of it at 100 mph. Chomp!

dastasha's picture
dastasha's picture
dastasha Friday, 27 Jan 2017 at 8:09pm

Yea that surfing fish at Lakey's! For real! Could see it from the beach as the waves peeled and couldn't figure out what it was until we got out there. And yea it was pretty big! It would surf the wave with you, up in the lip. You could see it in full detail - a bit disconcerting cos it would pop up beside you and you could look it in the eye!
It would rip along at speed then kick out at the end of the wave and swim back out slow and casual. Then it would be there in the lip again on a wave in the next set.
The waves were overhead and it was in about '91.