Question...hoping for input from you more experienced

Hello Everyone:

In the past 20 years I've done mostly salt water fishing. My fresh water fishing experience is from years ago and was in CA...mostly in rivers. Recently, I've purchased a summer house on a lake in The Berkshires. Last night, with the sun just about to go down, I saw something......

......there were fish (I couldn't see much due to darkness) swimming at the top, their dorsal fins cutting the surface. They made some rather large wakes (perhaps deceptively) and were about 5 to 8 feet apart; there were about 50 or so w/in a large area. I am assuming that they were feeding on insects but can anyone tell me what this was? What are the likely species of fish? What were they doing? If it's "fishable" fish how would one fish for them?

thanks!!

Is the lake cold and clear, stream or river fed? if it is you could have gotten lucky and had a bunch of trout coming up after the insects. if they are trout, you can catch them on a fly, a mepps, a worm or a spoon. also powerbait. it's also possible they were smallmouth, they tend to cruise the shore really close right at dusk. good luck!

Could also possibly be white perch or crappie.

You didn't say what lake. Try going to the link posted below or search the INTRANET. The link below should tell you what species are in the lake and give you a good idea of what you may have seen.

http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dfw/index.htm

I think Don might have it with crappie. They're in lots of lakes in this state, and I'm pretty sure they're up on the surface when they spawn.

I've seen a lot of big sunfish doing it this time of year in a few places I fish as well. Usually early morning or late evening I've seen a few big schools cruising the surface typically near submerged weed beds. The ones I've seen look to be the bigger, perhaps bulls. I've managed to get fairly close to a few of them. They tend to be moving their beds out deeper as they continue to spawn ( which they do all year ) and I think many of them come up to feed on insects and such through the dawn/evening change.

If that is the case then they are deffo fishable... small lures, float fishing and/or flys will knock em.

Another vote for White perch. I have seen the school up and do this many times but it is usually in the spring and then again in the fall.

I've seen sunfish (Bluegill, pumkinseed, etc.) do this time and time again. Two weeks ago at Dudley Pond, we saw loads and loads of them doing this all around our boat.

Which lake?

Thank you everyone for the responses!! It's Lake Ashmere. Does that help?

based on the link below I would guess either white Perch or Golden Shiner and I'm favoring the Golden Shiner

http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dfw/habitat/maps/ponds/pdf/dfwashmere.pdf