Stupid fish?

[NorthwestBasser]

Been watching alot of seminars and random fishing videos lately. There seems to be a theme amongst the pros that keeps popping up, fish are stupid animals with teenie tiny brains. Followed by good advice of keeping things simple, i.e. color selection, lure variety...

But, if they are so dumb... HOW DO THEY KEEP OUT-SMARTING ME!? 

stupid human...

[Bluebasser86]

They certainly aren't as smart as it seems like they are some days. 

[Crestliner2008]

The biggest problem you have to solve in fishing is location. Once you are able to locate fish, the solutions to catching them becomes much simpler. There are times when you see bait and fish on your sonar, on a good structure, but still cannot get them to bite. Everyone has those days. Putting time in on the water narrows those days down considerable however.

[Catt]

Anglers often respond to failure and frustration by over-complicating theory and technique. As much as it helps our egos to regard a difficult task as complex, this type of thinking is often the biggest obstacle between you and your fishing success.

[iiTzChunky]

I had read an article a while back about bass memory. They'd put the bass in a tank and drop in a plastic bait and the bass would try to eat it. After they figured out it wasn't food they wouldn't attempt to strike and eat it anymore. They tested it up to like 8 months and the bass still didn't wanna try to eat the bait. 

 

Not sure how much of that is true but I don't think bass are as stupid as people think. They just have instincts like any other animal. 

[Catt]

5 minutes ago, iiTzChunky said:

I had read an article a while back about bass memory. They'd put the bass in a tank and drop in a plastic bait and the bass would try to eat it. After they figured out it wasn't food they wouldn't attempt to strike and eat it anymore. They tested it up to like 8 months and the bass still didn't wanna try to eat the bait. 

 

Not sure how much of that is true but I don't think bass are as stupid as people think. They just have instincts like any other animal. 

 

And we all fish in aquariums

[scaleface]

Fishing pressure makes bass fishing more difficult . Some people will disagree with that . I've had un-pressured bass follow me around like pet dogs .

[Jtrout]

Go to bps look at the tank alot of times all the big bass are in a bush looking at the wall. Why do they do that?

[iiTzChunky]

39 minutes ago, Catt said:

 

And we all fish in aquariums

I'm just sayin once a fish has seen somthing and knows it not food and it doesn't make the bass react and strike they will let the bait go right by 

[Deleted account]

9 hours ago, NorthwestBasser said:

Been watching alot of seminars and random fishing videos lately. There seems to be a theme amongst the pros that keeps popping up, fish are stupid animals with teenie tiny brains. Followed by good advice of keeping things simple, i.e. color selection, lure variety...

But, if they are so dumb... HOW DO THEY KEEP OUT-SMARTING ME!? 

stupid human...

 

They are indeed simple creatures. They are not outsmarting you, you are outsmarting yourself. The hardest thing about catching fish is finding fish. If this wasn't the case charter captains and fishing guides couldn't make a living. 

[jiggerpole]

Bass can see really well and can easily tell that your bait is not real. But I think that if you catch them off guard they will strike just about anything that causes them to (react and strike) rather than (target your bait and strike.)

 I think fishing line is a good reason that most fish don't strike. They see it and have been conditioned to spook at the sight. (Fishing around lights will teach you a lot about the line you choose.)

I believe you can make a bass mad enough to strike. I feel that when bass are feeding aggressively they are simply trying to keep the other bass from getting to your bait first and make a mistake.

 As far as memory is concerned. I don't know. I have caught the same bass back to back and I have caught the same bass that broke off and got my hook and got it back on the next cast. 

If I could catch them every time I went out then I would either be rich or it would get boring.

[Catt]

52 minutes ago, iiTzChunky said:

I'm just sayin once a fish has seen somthing and knows it not food and it doesn't make the bass react and strike they will let the bait go right by 

 

Bass in an aquarium does not translate to bass in the wild!

[WRB]

When bass are inactive you can't outsmart them, active feeding bass are easy to catch...same fish.

Tom

[iiTzChunky]

36 minutes ago, Catt said:

 

Bass in an aquarium does not translate to bass in the wild!

I didn't conduct the experiment but I'd assume they where wild caught bass and brought in just for the test. 

[Catt]

50 minutes ago, iiTzChunky said:

I'd assume they where wild caught bass and brought in just for the test. 

 

You have no issues with these types of experiment?

[Raul]

11 hours ago, NorthwestBasser said:

Been watching alot of seminars and random fishing videos lately. There seems to be a theme amongst the pros that keeps popping up, fish are stupid animals with teenie tiny brains. Followed by good advice of keeping things simple, i.e. color selection, lure variety...

But, if they are so dumb... HOW DO THEY KEEP OUT-SMARTING ME!? 

stupid human...

 

You are not being "outsmarted", you haven't found the mecanism that would trigger a positive response in case you have actually placed your bait where the fish are.

[RoLo]

19 hours ago, NorthwestBasser said:

But, if they are so dumb... HOW DO THEY KEEP OUT-SMARTING ME!?

 

A bass is a cold-blooded creature that lacks the capacity to reason.

This brings us to the inescapable conclusion that the angler 'outsmarts himself'.

Or to put it indelicately, the fish may not be the 'only' dumb one     

 

Roger

[iiTzChunky]

1 hour ago, Catt said:

 

You have no issues with these types of experiment?

I wouldn't bet the farm on the results but it's gonna be next to impossible to test it in the wild and have real evidence of it. As far as what they did with the fish during the time of this who knows how they where treated. I personally don't like seeing anyone hurt the fish unless they plan on killing them to eat. 

[WRB]

Bass survive by using their instincts, the brain processes what their senses are sending it, very little ability to process memory. Some bass are very aggressive, some are very cautious, most are somewhere inbetween . All bass most eat and rest. I have doubts about bass being conditioned to specific lures. Bass that aggressively react to a certain lure get removed by anglers who are using that lure or the prey the lure represents is no longer a primary food source. 

Studies performed outside of the basses natural environmemt take the predator out of it's ability to hunt and seek sanctuary areas to rest, changing it's basic behavior habits.

Tom

[MIbassyaker]

Seems to me that either bass learn to avoid lures, or there is no such thing as fishing pressure. I don't see how you can have one without the other.

[WRB]

9 minutes ago, MIbassyaker said:

Seems to me that either bass learn to avoid lures, or there is no such thing as fishing pressure. Pick one.

Bass live about 15 years, takes  a few years to grow over 12" long, a few years old age so that is about 10 years anglers have to educate them. Soft plastic worms have been around over 50 years, or more than 5 generations of bass and they haven't learned to avoid them to date. Jigs have been around even longer and work today just as good as 75 years ago.

Original Rapala minnow lures still work today after 50 years. Anglers use lack of success as a excuse for not catching bass and credit new lures for catching bass. Bass can't hit a lure stored in your tackle box. Tell me exactly what lure have bass learned to avoid?

Tom

 

 

[MIbassyaker]

39 minutes ago, WRB said:

Bass live about 15 years, takes aFew years to grow over 12" long, a few years old age so that is about 10 years anglers have to educate them. Soft plastic worms have been around over 50 years, or more than 5 generations of bass and they haven't learned to avoid them to date. Jigs have been around even longer and work today just as good as 75 years ago.

Original,Rapala minnow lures still work today. Anglers use lack of success as a excuse for not catching bass and credit new lures for catching bass. Bass can't hit a lure stored in your tackle box. Tell me exactly what lure have bass learned to avoid?

Tom

 

 

 

Well, avoidance learning is not necessarily all or none -- it's about a reduction in response strength or response frequency, not a disappearance altogether.

 

As it happens, my May issue of In-Fisherman reports (P. 8) on a recent study (Hessenauer, Vokoum, Davis, Jacobs & O'Donnell, 2016) that found declining catch rates with cumulative catch events, for bass initially taken from fished and unfished populations, and raised in a pond for two years. The data pretty clearly show evidence of learned lure avoidance.  The lures were a rapala minnow, a mepps spinner and curlytail grub on a jig. And it wasn't in a tank.

[WRB]

Tried to look up the study report, no longer get IF. The referenced authors are well published and in the business of making study reports. The only reference found was a study to determine the catch rate between bass from a virgin fishery verses and public fishery place together in a pond. No lure details were given and the conclusion was a slight difference may exist between the 2 populations of LMB in lure avoidance. How many bass were involved or how many days weeks or years was the study performed or prey sources the bass accustom to eating prior to being moved to a new environmemt or what prey was availble in the pond wasn't noted in the brief report I read. I have also read reports by the same authors that suggest fish can learn to avoid lures by observing other fish being caught....suggesting a higher form of intellect.

If you have a link I will read it.

Tom

[RichF]

It's not that the bass outsmart us. Sometimes they just don't wanna bite. 

[Airman4754]

In small water fish absolutely get smart to certain baits. 

 

In any piece of water over 50 acres I've never found that to be an issue.