How Smart Are These Fish

[EvanT123]

Hey all. I fished a spot that I used to fish daily for the first time in 3 years about a month ago. That day I caught 6 in 2 hours and had about the same in missed bites usings flukes and a senko.

Now I got back there 1-3 times a week and I'm luck to get one. I'm changing it up using spinners, t-rigged creatures cranks etc and still flukes and senkos. I know there is not a lot of presurre there and at this point I see the fish sometime bumping the baits. Do you think these fish are hip to the game? I've also fished this spot under a variety of weather conditions and same thing. Do you think now they are not gonna bite anything that is our of the ordinary ?

[smalljaw67]

It isn't intelligence, it is instinct. What you found is a place that holds a small population of resident fish and since you have been fishing them on a regular basis the fish have now become conditioned. The way to catch the fish now is by using something completely different, if you haven't used any type of crankbait before, now would be the time to use it. I know of an area that holds fish and gets pressured to the point the fish are conditioned but if you make a long cast away from the 5 or 6 yard area they are positioned at, and then bring a jig or texas rigged soft plastic through the spot you can get bit but once you get one you need to leave as the other fish will spook and scatter. So try something you have never used on these fish, perhaps a shallow diving floating style jerkbait worked over them really aggressively.

[EvanT123]

Thanks I have a few ill give it a shot

[jim k]

How smart are they? I've done quite a bit of scuba diving, and the waters around here are loaded with Smallmouth. They pick things up quickly. A couple stories.

We were catching nice bass regularly along a section of lake Erie shore. We decided to dive it to learn what made it productive. The bottom was rocky. As we went along we turned over a few, and bait (crayfish, goby, darters) would shoot out. Then, a few bass began to follow us. As we turned over the stones, the bass would attack the prey, soon we had better than a dozen around. after a few stones, we could put our hand on a stone, nod to the bass, who would assume an attack posture, and flip the rock. All you saw was the flash of bronze.

I dive the same section of the upper Niagara river Regularly. I began to notice the same few bass stayed with me the entire dive. As I work slowly along the bottom, I would kick gobies out of the alga that tends to collect in the slower parts of my drift. These bass knew it and flocked to us as soon as we hit the water. they must have keyed in on our exhaust bubbles. It went on for two seasons. The ringleader, who we named Tyrone must have passed on, because I don't see him this year . I could touch him, he became so comfortable with us.

They are smart, for sure. Their brazenness and aggressiveness is their weakness.

Here's one who has his own place

[Nick]

Cool story! My pond bass learned very quickly to flollow the snakes around the rip rapped edge waiting for the snakes to flush out a crevice hidden minnow. It's common to see as many as two dozen bass following a snake since that's the best way for the bass to get at those pesky minnows.