Noticed on fishing shows.....

[Rick Howard]

Most often yes but sometimes they will fool me.   

[Sifuedition]

Perch/sunfish/bluegill - you feel how short the headshakes are and they tend to be like having a bat (the flying kind) on the line. Erratic, rapid turns and spins.

 

LMB - headshake just feels different. More often a turn and pull, rather than side to side, unless your gear is too heavy for them to get their head around.

 

Carp/drum - tendency to feel like dead weight that may make runs straight away from you.

 

Catfish - whole body shakes rather than just headshakes, hugs bottom most often, may make runs in any direction.

 

Telling the difference in the shakes is just time learning the feel of your rod/line combo. This is largely how the rod tip is pulled, with bigger or smaller tugs, but, it is also in the finer sensations coming up the line and through the rod material. I can usually tell when the line runs across submerged limbs or fish just from the subtle drag - tap feel. With most of mine, I can immediately tell if I have even a little bit of moss/weed on any kind of moving bait, like lipless crankbaits, swimbaits, etc, just by the difference in the feel of the action on the lure.

 

The quality and features of your rod can make a big difference here.

 

 

This pic was just the first that I found with this feature visible. Notice just in front of the finger-grip on this rod. The surrounding material is gone leaving your finger touching the actual rod blank. Features like this can give you much more sensitivity in the feel of exactly what is happening on the other end of that line.

[BassB8Caster]

I would say a lot of it depends on the sensitivity of the rod and how we handle them. No doubt lmb shake their heads and we will all feel this at some point. I have had some that litterally give up and just get reeled in, dragged across the surface. And im not horsing them in either. I was amazed however at the amount of head shakes they do without us even noticing. I was fishing a lipless crank with rattles (from a kayak so im close to the water) and had a 2 to 2.5lber on. I had it reeled in close to me, just under the kayak. All i could hear was rattle rattle rattle. That fish was constantly shaking its head. But i felt nothing through my mh rod. It was so cool. 

[HookRz]

I can always tell a pike or Musky hit my spinnerbait. They tend to knock a bit of slack in the line as they run it down at high speed. Sort of a tick followed by a wump! 

Can sometimes tell when they hit a flipping jig to. A little tick, then you say "where did my jig go?" Lol. 

[bigbill]

Hooking a smallmouth is like having a 5lb bluegill on the line what a fight. A pickerel is more intense depending on the size but it darts and makes more runs. A LMB fights but not as violent. But there are lazy LMB and active LMB too. I can pretty much tell whats on my line before I see it.

[Fishing Cowgirl]

On ‎8‎/‎30‎/‎2017 at 5:13 AM, The Bassman said:

An old Fishing Hole program showed Jerry McKinnis fighting what he thought was a big smallmouth on Dale Hollow with Billy Westmoreland.  Turned out to be a lawn chair.

A flip flop or a baseball cap will dive, run sideways, and shudder. Then embarrass you when you get it to the boat. A mudfish (bowfin) will roll and a bass with grass covering its face will stop fighting till you are getting it in the boat. Then the hydrilla starts flying. Pickerel have taken many of my baits as bling bling jewelry. Lost jigs, spinner baits, and a couple nice crank baits. You could hear him swimming around rattling it.

[fishwizzard]

I was out with my nephew a few months ago fishing a small lake at dusk.  I was fishing a WP 130 and flying it way way out there.   Something hit it right as it touched down and it felt like a cinderblock grabbed my lure and dived straight down.  It was so odd, sometimes I would just be reeling into a very heavy weight, but then I would  pause and the line would move off on it's own.  It felt like a snagg that would sometimes fight back.  I could not figure out what kind of fish would hit a topwater but be so strong and heavy.  It took me almost 3 min to get it landed.  

 

Turned out to be a snapping turtle with, I kid you not, a shell about 20" across.  I got my lure back but it was a little hairy for a moment or two.  

[Pro Logcatcher]

On 8/29/2017 at 8:04 PM, Sword of the Lord said:

Anyone ever have LMB who literally don't fight at all? I've hooked into LMB that left me thinking I was pulling up a snag because it's dead weight. Get 'em out though and then they go nuts.

I always have those fish that only fight when I'm trying to unhook them!

[pondbassin101]

I haven't been fishing for that long but I can at least tell the difference between a LMB and a catfish.

[Paul Roberts]

On 8/29/2017 at 4:10 PM, Preytorien said:

I've noticed when I'm watching various fishing shows or YouTube videos that a lot of anglers while reeling in a fish, can tell the type of fish, apparently by how it fights?

 

I can say with some I can tell what kind of fish it is by the bite, for instance a bluegill bite feels different than a bass, but can you really tell the type of fish by the fight?

 

I can say in all honesty I can't. I've had a particularly strong large-ish bluegill make me think I had a nice bass, or a smallie feel like a big largemouth, crappie feel like a nice largemouth, etc. 

 

What's the secret? I want to be able to tell too.

Definitely. The secret? Experience.

 

Every fish species is different in terms of body build, energy level, and swimming performance: 

 

Body build explains a lot of it. In general, the deeper the body the more that fish can pull, but this is often at the expense of speed or distance it will run. Bluegill is an extreme example. Narrow fish tend to be faster, swim more in a bee-line, and can be "turned over" with pressure quicker. (This also plays a role in what types of retrieves they are apt to respond to), and they are more apt to writhe or twist in an effort to pull free of the hook. Pike are an example.

 

Energy level is another. While LM and SM are similar in body shape, SM are often faster, pull harder, and take longer to subdue. I've caught tons of trout, and in the Great Lakes there were varieties of rainbow trout planted, that can be broken down into two main categories: "Steelhead" (anadromous ancestry) and Domestics (hatchery mixs with predominately land-locked ancestry). Hook each and you know nearly instantly. The deep-bodied domestics can not run as far or as fast, they wallow more and give up quicker. Steelhead are scary fast, can run long, and can leap eye level with you.

 

Then there are mid-body forms -not narrow, not deep, such as trout, walleye, and bass. Trout are faster than walleye and do a lot of writhing and shaking. Browns are notorious for "rolling", twisting. Walleye try to stay down toward the bottom and feel "head-heavy". Their bolts to bottom are bee-line and can be pretty sharp, but they give up pretty quick apparently due to energy level and body shape.

 

Then there are catfish... They are both laterally compressed (deep-bodied/flat-sided) and have a wide shovel-like head. When I hook one (not uncommonly on bass lures) I know right away. A large one can bolt and run, often with more speed than a bass. And then they can use that shovel head to stay down, especially when they are directly below you. I call them "cinder blocks with fins" at this stage. 

 

Bullheads are pretty much cylindrical.  They have a flat laterally compressed back third, are round for the front two-thirds, and don't have a lot of energy. They writhe, roll, and give up quick. "Yup, it's a bullhead." I've caught trout and bass with spinal deformities -as if they had a section removed from the mid-section making them short and rotund, and when I've hooked them I've wondered, "Bullhead?"

 

Then there are eels, the most extreme example of a long thin fish. They have no body depth to pull with, so they writhe wildly in a backwards direction. It feels like a whole lot of pounding, but they don't really go anywhere. "Eel!"

 

Here's a cool thing: Body length can be "measured" in the rod: When a long fish "shakes"/"writhes" (bc it can't counter your pressure as well as a deep bodied fish), your rod tip dips. The length of the dip is a good indication of the fish's length. 

 

Something else comes into the mix too and that is the water body you're fishing. I may not always be able to tell a drum from a large bass, say, but if there are drum in the water body, I may suspect this one may be a drum. Drum however seem to be able to remain upright better (are more laterally compressed), and are a bit faster than bass, in my -more limited- experience with them.

 

Again, the secret is experience with lots of different kinds of fish.

 

On 12/5/2017 at 9:44 AM, Fishing Cowgirl said:

A flip flop or a baseball cap will dive, run sideways, and shudder. Then embarrass you when you get it to the boat.

Yes! Sticks can do that too, when hooked off center.

[Columbia Craw]

I caught the neighbor's cat once on a jig.  It fought just like a hot summer run steelhead only noisier.

[Sifuedition]

10 hours ago, fishwizzard said:

I was out with my nephew a few months ago fishing a small lake at dusk.  I was fishing a WP 130 and flying it way way out there.   Something hit it right as it touched down and it felt like a cinderblock grabbed my lure and dived straight down.  It was so odd, sometimes I would just be reeling into a very heavy weight, but then I would  pause and the line would move off on it's own.  It felt like a snagg that would sometimes fight back.  I could not figure out what kind of fish would hit a topwater but be so strong and heavy.  It took me almost 3 min to get it landed.  

 

Turned out to be a snapping turtle with, I kid you not, a shell about 20" across.  I got my lure back but it was a little hairy for a moment or two.  

As soon as you said cinderblock, I guessed it. Good description. I've had that fight, but on live bait.