Smallmouth Bass swims alongside diver

[Russoft]

Hi fellow MN divers,

I'm new to the board and to Minnesota. Been here in MN for 18 months and only started diving local sites this summer. My wife and I made a recent trip to the Crosby Mine Pits and captured a rather amusing video of a smallmouth bass which was swimming alongside me, just out of my sight line, for much of the dive. Just thought I'd share it and see if anyone else has had a similar experience. Is this behaviour common?



This was the Louise Mine Pit / Eternal Bliss. As a side note, we noticed fairly poor visibility during our visit over the Labor Day weekend in all three pits we visited: Huntington, Mangan, and Louise. Not sure what affects visibility, but it was much better just the previous weekend.

[jasondbaker]

Yeah, those bass like to follow you around sometimes. I've had similar encounters where bass have followed me for long periods of a dive. Sometimes I wonder what drives their interest. Perhaps the fish get fed by other divers, or perhaps they are just really curious.

Visibility can vary due to weather conditions, seasons, and other divers. Recent rain or windy conditions can introduce more sediment into the water column. Other divers can quickly silt out a site if they consistently use a flutter kick. These are small lakes and it doesn't take much to stir a site. Also, at certain times of the year lake inversion and algae growth can greatly impact visibility.

Welcome to the forum!

[stick500]

it's a good thing that virtually all 50 states don't allow any sort of spearfishing for smallies or largemouths- certainly the most curious fish in the freshwater world

I ran into several schools of bass fry this summer and mama or papa was close by and didn't like that I was there but all they could do was watch and wait for me to pass

amazing fish- I catch a lot on hook and line but always let them go- had a pet bass (Ernest T.) when I was a kid that would leap out of the water and grab a nightcrawler from my fingers!

thanks for sharing the cool vid!

[Adam6521]

I was up there a few years ago in waist deep water and leaned over to go in and sure enough there was a small mouth bass really close!

[Claymore]

There was a Small Mouth checking out our OW II class on the platform Saturday. Did not seem to mind that there were 14 divers around him watching him.

[Russoft]

I'm pretty sure we saw your group while we were there! A large group went in right before us and we passed by them at the platform. It looked like an OW class to me.