Baitfish behavior question for the experts....

Hey there,

When I was fishing this past weekend in the surf I found an aforementioned “Whiting hole” and caught a whole mess of whiting. But right there at that hole there was also a big baitfish blow up that pretty much stayed going for the whole afternoon. My question is “Is there anything other than being attacked by bigger fish that would make baitfish do this?” The baitfish looked like pinfish to me, or at least something that looked like them.

The reason I ask is that I threw everything but the kitchen sink through the bait fish blow up,...spoon, gotcha, swimbaiit, jigs, floaters, sinkers, and even a bubble rig....nothing.

So,.am I to think there actually wasn’t something bigger attacking them? Do baitfish sometimes just boil and jump for no real reason? I’m not experienced enough with saltwater fishing to know the answer to this definitively.

It goesn't take a very big, or close, predator to spook bait. Anticipation is survival.

Might have been feeding behavior by the baitfish.
A lot of competition between individual pinfish and maybe small pompano or even juvenile jacks...
But I've been seeing some ladyfish, big bluefish and occasional slot redfish quickly snatch those small fish too...

My guess is Atlantic Bumpers (aka crazy fish) or baby Jack Crevalle feeding on tiny minnows. Because they wouldn't hit your lures, I'm leaning towards the crazy fish. Many people think the "bait fish" are being chased by some large predator, when in fact the "bait fish" are the predators and you can't even see what they are eating.

That makes sense. I don’t know why but for some reason it seemed like the fish were not that panicked,...just agitated. They kept at it in that small area for hours. Them feeding on something makes sense. I guess whatever made the whiting love that hole also attracted them. Never seen that before, and it was damned frustrating to throw through them time after time and have nothing hit. Oh well,..learn something every day.