Went to Rice Lake, Seemed like May

I rented a boat on Rice Lake today with a buddy. I haven't fished Rice in a number of years. I could not believe the weeds (Bewdley end), so it is very similar to Scugog now., with having to stop the motor to clean off the weeds. We didn't have much luck catching anything for most of the morning, but around noon, we kept seeing bass jumping out of the water, kind of like May bug hatch. Any idea what they were eating? One bass went completely out of the water in about ten seconds. We tried top water, but no takers. Most of the jumpers were decent sized bass, easily over three pounds.

Yep , that part of rice is very weedy in summer . Most people fish deeper central area for walleye and smallies in summer but weeds also have the fish in them .
Are you sure that jumping fish was bass and not carp ?
In summer pretty much every warm morning in weedy areas and beyond carp does this thing .

Definitely bass, one jumped not even ten feet from the boat.

Guess what, you are both right. I am sure colanut saw some bass jumping. And JB is right on the carp jumping. Carp will spawn more than once in a season. The majority of carp do not lay all there eggs at once, spring time for example. I see this all season as long as I have been fishing. Now I was not there yesterday. This is what I think colanut saw. All fish go after other fish eggs and new hatch fry. The bass were probably chasing minnows to the surface. Minnows jump to avoid being eaten, and the bass jump as they catch the minnows at the surface. There is also another reason for this. If there was some carp in there spawning, they would chase the bass away, and the bass would jump as they retreat. I fish at night and into the morning. I see bass jump and I see carp jump. You can hear them as well before the sun comes up. A carp jump usually sounds like a small belly flop. And a bass jump sounds more like multiple smacks to the water. And if anyone is interested a musky jump sounds like a cannon ball dive. This usually gives me quite a jolt at night when muskie are hunting in the shallow water. I have had them come right out of the water as I am about to net a crappie or walleye. It's scary and creepy every time because it is quiet at night, and you do not see the muskie until he is right on you. I lift many fish out of the water with my hand, and someday I bet I will get bit by one of those monsters.

I was out christening my new fishing kayak yesterday (different lake) and saw similar top water activity around 10:30 to 11:00am in 27 to 30 FOW.

Up until that point in time I'd only caught small perch, catfish and small sunfish.

Shortly after 11am, I landed a 15+ inch smallmouth.

I have seen bass do the same recently on Balsam 10 to 12 ft in or on edge of weedbeds, I believe they are chasing baitfish up and breaking the surface not to may bug worth chasing now. Also saw a 40” plus Muskie roll in front of me on Sunday and another jump behind . Amazing how the fish were not affected by all the boat activity they just went about their feeding.