Skippers - very cool.

Merritt's Mill Pond, a 4-mile stretch behind a little dam in the Florida panhandle. There's a school of grass carp about 4 feet long. 50 or 100 or more... not sure. We were following them around in 5 to 8 feet of semi-clear water. The school would occasionally make a turn en masse that would throw up wave like a small boat wake. Very fun. One carp jumped over a friend's bow. Another landed a few feet from me and splashed water right in my face.

: Here on the South China Sea we have skippers. These are fish that
: come out of the water and skip across the surface just like kids
: skipping stones. I have seen half a dozen species do this, each
: with their own style of skipping.

: I discovered my favorite this morning when I was paddling in four
: to five foot swell. Two of them came out of the water in front
: of my bow so close I thought they were going to hit it. They
: were about ten inches long, very sleek and had very faint blue
: and gold longitudinal stripes.

: These were the fastest I have seen and their first jump was about
: ten feet then a skip of twenty feet seemingly timed to coincide
: with the top of an incoming swell. They used the height gained
: from the swell to fly sixty feet to another skip of twenty feet.
: The show ended as they plunged into the face of the next
: incoming swell. Spectacular! Land lubbers never get to see this
: stuff.

: Anyway, although I see skippers all around me at least half of them
: start right in front of me, which leads me to believe that I
: have surprised them due to the quietness of the kayak. This has
: gotten me to thinking of the Asian carp invasion in the
: Mississippi River drainage basin and how when they are
: frightened the carp jump high out of the water.

: So here is a question. Have any of you mid-western paddlers had
: experiences of scaring up carp while paddling?