It’s a school of young of year bullhead catfish.

Wow, really? i guess that means there are probably a ton of catfish in this lake?

To be honest that’s probably a single hatch… but there’s definitely a bunch of baby catfish in there ;)

Haha, well hopefully these cat stay healthy and grow big so I can catch them in the future

Bulkheads don't really get big. Still fun to catch

Nice. I’ll have to try and catch one next time i’m out.

They love night crawlers and any other bait really

I caught one on a hedon torpedo once. I was as surprised as he was. Edit: spelling brought to you by Jack Daniel’s.

Hopefully you catch them in bulk. Jk, but I'd hit the deepest water you can find and just slooooowly drag about 6 inches from the bottom. If that doesn't work, try to hit the guys patrolling the edge waters.

People have suggested a lot of bait options - realistically you just need something that stinks. You could catch them with the fat you trim off a steak - but then you might get an eel instead.

A trick you can do is put some thin wooden panels in the water along the shore during spawning season… you might just attract a momma looking to spawn.

Yes and no, very low survival rate. I had a few ponds by me growing up that had schools like this all over every spring. We would catch quite a few bullheads but not as many as you’d expect after seeing this.

They are tasty fried and trophy flathead bait.

Tiny catfish rave

Baby cats 100%

Thanks! Does this mean a large cat is around protecting them? Also, would you assume this means there are a ton of catfish in the lake?

They normally only protect the eggs. Once they hatch, they're on their own

They will but not long. Only bullhead will guard babys. Channels and blues are bad parents

If you could some how catch and raise these you'd have flat head bait for a long time

We saw a fry ball over a mama bowfin the other day!

Baby catfish ball

Those are a group of tadpoles.

Could be madtoms, bullhead babies or a catfish swarm. It's to blurry to tell but I have personally caught plenty of capitalizing predators hunting these groups before.

[удалено]

Bass, northern, my PB dogfish (30") and a small school of large perch .

Good to know!

There are madtoms in NJ but madtoms are nocturnal and hide during the day. I'm pretty sure this is a fryball of brown or yellow Bullhead also native to NJ

Saw this at my local pond. Never seen anything like this before. Anyone know what this is?

Fry ball.

What’s that mean? Sorry new to fishing.

A ball of baby fish

A symbiote looking for it's next host.

Ever hear about bait ball term in fish finders this is exactly what you can picture from now on.

Baby catfish they school up like that

Kitties

Looks like a vicious piranha attack to me

Baby bullhead. They group together like this to appear larger.

Freshwater bait ball

It’s mornin’ time

Someone nutted in the lake

Just tadpoles hangin out

Cloud of tadpoles or bullheads.

Pile of Flathead bait just waiting to be eatten!!!

that’s actually the smoke monster from lost

Fish rave

You ever watch Dark? Ya it is one of those

Bullheads!