Flying Fish Ancestry?

I was throwing cat food into a reservoir to feed the fish, and there was of course a feeding frenzy by the bream and perch... that is until the large catfish came to the party. Some of the bream were so frightened that they leapt out of the water and skipped on the surface on their tails for 20 feet or more to escape the catfish, which were large enough to swallow them whole. I had never seen small panfish do this before.

It is easy for me to see this as predecessor to flying fish.

Has anyone else observed this behavior?