Ok with all of the heavy topics going on here, I think it is time to lighten things up.

So, why do fish jump?
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Cause they don't have middle fingers.

Just maybe because they want too!!!

My hook is in his mouth and he is trying to shake it out <img border="0" alt="[eat]" title="" src="graemlins/eat.gif" />

Funny you should ask. My fishing buddies and I were just discussing that yesterday. Here are our answers

1. To loosen the eggs. (Do they need to loosen sperm as well?)

2. To shake off sea lice. (But trout jump and they don't have any sea lice.)

3. Because they don't have a middle finger.

4. Just cuz.

Hershel is on his A**!

In the case of the Snohomish river, it's to avoid the buzz bomb with the 4/0 treble flyin' towards them at warp speed!

Just to piss me off.

To see where I'm at so they know which hook to bite!!

Tight lines
Smalma

To get those horrible fish leaches of their scales....yuck!

Maybe its fish aerobics. They need to shed some of that fat they built up eating all those krill, herring, needlefish and such on their way to their final destination, which hopefully is my grill, frying pan, smoker , freezer or their native streams.

Fish jump so that they can check which way the boats are trolling cause someone on this board told them to always troll with the current - thus home is the opposite direction

Fish jump when they are "HAPPY"

Cigar

It was that darned "Flipper". He started the whole thing!

Last weekend it was to shake my hootchie, flasher and diver off after my new knot in my new "super line" didn't hold.

Lesson learned ... the hard way

Only chance they have to dry off!

I'm thinking:

A. Due to no middle finger, they're giving you the fin, or

B. They're trying to show you that you missed them, Na---na---na-na-na-na .

They're in training for the jumps they have to make at the falls, kind of like warmups for athletes before the game...

The first step to solving this mystery is answering the age old question: Does a fish jump when nobody is around to see it jump?

what is a fish leach?

...because skipping would look stupid?