Are fish smart at all?

[kiteman]

I've fished this pond for 3-4 years now and I know traffic has accumulated the last year or two.  It is a private pond per se, but the owners aren't super restrictive about who fishes there.  They make a good effort to run off poaches, but there is no daily bag limit, it's just a small country lake too small for boats and lots of room for bank fishing.

 

i recently went through a dry spell and could not catch a thing bigger than 1lb.  this week i went to hard to access spots and caught my pb of 5-6lbs.  are fish smart enough to get away or was this just dumb luck?

[Rick Howard]

I do not put much stock into the fishing pressure theory.  The qualifier there is if the fish are caught and released.  Weekends are pretty crowded and every Monday there are leagues that fish my home water.  So Tuesday I catch a bunch of fish with hook wounds. 

[Russ E]

Quote

  this week i went to hard to access spots and caught my pb of 5-6lbs.  

Fish are not intelligent. I think the sentence above says it all.

A hard to access area does not get fished. chances are most the big fish from the rest of the lake have been harvested.

[scaleface]

Unpressured fish are super easy to catch . 

[Bluebasser86]

Fish are smart in the way that they can learn to avoid certain situations and areas, but not overly intelligent.

 

Most likely the fish you caught had moved away from the areas of easy access due to being caught or spooked by noisy shore anglers. If found a quieter area away from the commotion and set up shop until you got to it.  

[TOXIC]

They are more instinctive than they are smart.  Never forget, they gotta eat and that's what you are trying to trick them into doing with most lures.  

[Oregon Native]

I had a case many years ago on a small clear lake that was interesting.  I had approached this small cove very quietly (I thought) and put my small boat up under the trees in the shade.  I had lily pads to my left with open water to my right.  I saw some motion in the pads ... flipped over there and caught a small fish.  A few minutes later about three or four large bass come swimming by the boat about 30 ft out.  All at the same time they turned towards my little boat and appeared to be looking at me.  This lasted about 15 seconds!!!  They then turned and headed on down the bank.  I did not get another bite in the area.  Was crazy!!

[MickD]

If you can see the fish in a clear lake, they can see you and will not bite, both smallies and largemouths.  That's my experience, anyway.  But they, as others have said, are instinctive, avoid unpleasant experiences, are not in the usual sense, intelligent.  I do think that if they see the same lures over and over, and have been taken on them, they will tend to avoid them.  Obviously, no proof.

 

My theory is that fish react instinctively to lures.  they are not thinking "wow, that looks like a perch, better eat it."   In clearer water, lures may have to be more "realistic."  In less than clear waters fish react to sound, motion, and color more than shape.  What makes them react to a certain combination one day and not the next is their secret, for the most part.  For example, largemouths in a local lake are pretty predictable in summer as to location.  You can almost always find them, and they are catchable with swim jigs and trailers.  Some days they hit on the fall, some days they pick them off bottom, some days they want them just slowly pulled, some days they want them hopped off the bottom.  Same for color, except for the visibility things we know about clear vs. cloudy water (dark vs light, shiny in the sun, etc).  The largemouths in the lake some days prefer dark green, some days black, some days black with blue, etc.  And it's a wonder that many times they all seem to  get the same message from somewhere, like "OK folks, it's junebug today, slow and easy."

 

If it is "match the hatch" with appearance, then a tube would not catch anything.  But they do, both smallies and largemouths, pike and walleyes.  IMHO, it is action and color more than appearance.  ONe day my son and I were catching smallies on rocks and using the exact same tubes and he was outcatching me about two to one.  I looked at his lure and found he was using a 1/8 jig, and I 3/16.  His was falling slower.  I changed and started catching more fish immediately.

[Catt]

Y'all need to read this!  ?

 

 

[NYWayfarer]

Just like some humans are smarter than others, some fish are smarter than others.

 

If you are talking species as a whole, Cichlids are pretty intelligent as far as fish go. When kept in aquariums they will come to recognize their owner. I had a 10" Oscar in a 8' long aquarium that used to follow me when I walked by like a puppy. I was even able to pet him when I lifted the top off the tank.

[the reel ess]

Even an earthworm learns from negative reinforcement. But often, if you'll show the fish something they haven't seen before, you can still do well after they've been pressured. I have a couple ponds I go to where the fish only see maybe a Beetle Spin, Rooster tail and T-rigged worm. Anything "new" to them seems to work well.

 

It does seem that some fish are inherently better at spotting a fake and that improves with age. You'd be amazed how many fish you drag a bait by that don't bite. Then when they get into a frenzy as a school, they can't help themselves. It's all instinct and they really aren't in control of it.

[scaleface]

Okay . there are two identical lakes stocked with the same number and size  largemouth bass . One receives no pressure the other gets hammered . Which one would you want  to fish ?

[everythingthatswims]

3 hours ago, Oregon Native said:

I had a case many years ago on a small clear lake that was interesting.  I had approached this small cove very quietly (I thought) and put my small boat up under the trees in the shade.  I had lily pads to my left with open water to my right.  I saw some motion in the pads ... flipped over there and caught a small fish.  A few minutes later about three or four large bass come swimming by the boat about 30 ft out.  All at the same time they turned towards my little boat and appeared to be looking at me.  This lasted about 15 seconds!!!  They then turned and headed on down the bank.  I did not get another bite in the area.  Was crazy!!

I have had this happen WAYYYY more often than I would like to admit. They definitely like to come study you.

 

[wdp]

2 hours ago, scaleface said:

Okay . there are two identical lakes stocked with the same number and size  largemouth bass . One receives no pressure the other gets hammered . Which one would you want  to fish ?

Right here, in a nutshell.

 

If the bass can't become conditioned, why does the bite become much less frequent in heavily pressured waters? 

 

Still..... not saying that makes em smart. ? But they def will learn to NOT hit certain baits. 

[kiteman]

seems like there are some varying opinions on if fish have been caught or just learned to go somewhere else in the pond, but i get it.

 

also i think some people are not good at fishing, like they just throw worms because that's all they know.  the biggest fish i've caught were because i saw a strike and went to another lure, just based on what i've learned on here and through google about how to fish.  but i don't think a lot of people know that.  so if the fish get conditioned even a little bit, combined with dumb anglers, i think it's totally plausible that some of the bigger ones are still out there, and just not as easily catchable any longer.  this is my sincere hope though, as i want it to be harder to catch them, but i still want them to be there.  if you catch 3 5-lbers every day you get bored of 5lbers.  if you catch 1 every 6 months, it's pretty awesome.

[geo g]

With a brain the size of a pea, NO!!!!!!!

[scaleface]

Evidently some of you have never been lucky enough to fish for un-pressured bass . Its awesome . Big bass after big bass . They will follow you around . All one   have to do is disengage the fishing reel and drop a lure  in front of them . I  had one swim between my legs . I only hope to get lucky enough to find such water again . I'm  not exaggerating , it gets that good .   

[CroakHunter]

9 hours ago, wdp said:

Right here, in a nutshell.

 

If the bass can't become conditioned, why does the bite become much less frequent in heavily pressured waters? 

 

Still..... not saying that makes em smart. ? But they def will learn to NOT hit certain baits. 

They're not conditioned to the baits, they are conditioned to the fishing pressure. People walking on the bank, kicking rocks, bombing casts 67 ft in the air and letting it splash down right on top of the fish, boat pressure, getting pinged with electronics, etc. Thats why if you go to a spot with caution and keep your awareness high and your presence unknown, you will more than likely have success whether it gets fished hard or not. If they got conditioned to the baits one of the lakes I fish, you would never get a bite on a white spinner bait, but we catch thousands every year on one in a small 65 acre lake. And some of the fish are caught multiple times. Any fish over 16 inches we tag and write down the number in the tag. So when we catch it again we can record it. I've caught the same fish 3 times in 7 months and on the same bait 2 of those times.

[Russ E]

14 minutes ago, scaleface said:

Evidently some of you have never been lucky enough to fish for un-pressured bass . Its awesome . Big bass after big bass . They will follow you around . All one   have to do is disengage the fishing reel and drop a lure  in front of them . I  had one swim between my legs . I only hope to get lucky enough to find such water again . I'm  not exaggerating , it gets that good .   

actually I did. Growing up my grandfather owned a farm in southern Iowa, with seven excellent ponds. My cousin and I were the only 2 people allowed to fish them and yes the fish grew big and were not difficult to catch.

I still don't believe Bass are smart. They live on instinct. 

they will learn what is food and what is not. they will also learn what to avoid to survive. If they didn't there would be no big fish.  This is no different from any other animal.

I still think Bass are magnificent creatures. That is why I spend nearly all of my free time chasing them.

[scaleface]

S

1 minute ago, Weedwhacker said:

 

I still don't believe Bass are smart. They live on instinct. 

 

Smarts , instinct same difference to me . They are not learning via their livers .

[wdp]

3 hours ago, CroakHunter said:

They're not conditioned to the baits, they are conditioned to the fishing pressure. People walking on the bank, kicking rocks, bombing casts 67 ft in the air and letting it splash down right on top of the fish, boat pressure, getting pinged with electronics, etc. Thats why if you go to a spot with caution and keep your awareness high and your presence unknown, you will more than likely have success whether it gets fished hard or not. If they got conditioned to the baits one of the lakes I fish, you would never get a bite on a white spinner bait, but we catch thousands every year on one in a small 65 acre lake. And some of the fish are caught multiple times. Any fish over 16 inches we tag and write down the number in the tag. So when we catch it again we can record it. I've caught the same fish 3 times in 7 months and on the same bait 2 of those times.

I'll have to partially disagree. A little 10 acre or less pond in my neighborhood has received a lot a pressure over the last 5 yrs, mostly by me. Others have seen me catching good ones outta of it & now there is a fairly steady barrage of fisher peoples. I always approach quietly with stealthy presentations & even go as far as wearing neutral colored clothes to not spook fish. Now the others, prob not so much so you may have a point there.

 

I really think they get conditioned to certain baits. Lately I've been resorting to finesse, blah, which I hate. But I think you expose any animal to enough negative stimuli (i.e. repeated C+R), they'll get conditioned to not bite certain artificial lures. Your example of taking the same bass 3 times in 7 months, I wouldn't consider that often enough to make a bass gun shy. 

 

I read an interesting article about some possible negative effects of C+R that I think was published on here or Bassmaster's. I'll post link if I can find it. 

[wdp]

Found em. Food for thought. 

 

https://www.bassresource.com/fish_biology/catchability.html

 

https://www.bassresource.com/fish_biology/smart_bass.html

[3crows]

I think bass are on par with a flatworm. They can learn and then they forget what they learned shortly thereafter.

[CroakHunter]

I consider myself fairly intelligent. So, If someone put a cheeseburger in front of my nose, and I bit down on it, got a hook drove in my face, ripped into the sky and held by a giant who grabbed me by the lips and took pics of me and then threw me back where I came from, I sure wouldn't be a fan of cheeseburgers anymore...

[3crows]

9 hours ago, CroakHunter said:

I consider myself fairly intelligent. So, If someone put a cheeseburger in front of my nose, and I bit down on it, got a hook drove in my face, ripped into the sky and held by a giant who grabbed me by the lips and took pics of me and then threw me back where I came from, I sure wouldn't be a fan of cheeseburgers anymore...

Yeah, but, you are a human being, not a bass. And your brain, even on it's worst day and even considering that you may not be a rocket scientist or may actually be one, nonetheless are about a zillion times smarter than a bass.

 

I have not caught many bass on cheeseburgers but I have caught the same bass three times in an outing on the same lure. Well, actually my mate caught it the second time and then I caught it a third time.