Can Bass Hear Rattles in Your Baits?

[Sam]

On February 19 IgotWood opened a discussion on Help with Lipless Crankbaits. Paul Roberts added to the discussion and I chimed in after reading Paul's post.

 

So here is the question: Can bass hear the rattles in our two types of crankbaits and other baits we throw?

 

My reply to Paul's post was out of Dr. Keith Jones' book. But Dr. Jones and other biologists did their research in a control lab setting. We come to our conclusions while on the water and via experience.

 

If you watch Kevin VanDam work a crankbait he uses the reel, reel, reel, stop for an instant method. He also moves the rod's tip up and down. I don't think I have ever seen VanDam cast and reel the hard bait back to the boat without any type of cadence.

 

Here is my post and reply to Paul and I am asking everyone to add their two cents.  What has been your experience with both lipless and billed crankbaits plus other baits that have rattles including putting glass tubes with rattles in your plastics?

 

Let the discussion begin!!!

 

Paul, as you probably know, Dr. Keith Jones of Pure Fishing's research department wrote a book, KNOWING BASS, THE SCIENTIFIC APPRPACH TO CATCHING MORE FISH, which is a scientific study of the bass family.

 

In chapter 7, Hearing and Vibration Detection, Dr. Jones discusses the acoustics of water, bass' acoustic detectors, the lateral line system, the bass' ear,  and what happens when a bass hears something and what do they do.

 

Of course, the data is deep into scientific data and physics which in many instances is over my head.
But Dr. Jones does explain the data as best as possible for the normal guy to understand what his research found out.

 

On page 115, Dr. Jones writes: "A third avenue for sound discrimination would be the temporal content, otherwise known as rhythm. Rhythm perception may be the bass' forte. Given their sensory equipment, bass seem better designed to detect acoustic transients (that is, sudden changes) than perform complex frequency or intensity analysis.  Natural sounds are rarely continuous.  Rather, they occur in series of beats and pulses intermixed with dead spots.  The regular tail beats of swimming shad and the thump a crawfish makes flicking its tail to escape have two distinct rhythms.  By focusing on the rhythm rather than the actual sound frequencies, bass could potentially discern one prey from another, or prey verses non-prey."

 

In other words, bass can hear and feel vibrations caused by our baits. And many of the older ones can differentiate between a natural prey and a non-prey sound.

 

The bass will hear the noise (sound travels 4,920 feet per second in all directions in the water); feel the vibrations; and then go sight hunting to put their eyeballs on the item making the noise and vibration.

 

If all goes as planned: bass hears noise and faces its direction; bass feels the vibrations; and then bass swims over to see what is making the racket to decide it wants to eat or kill what it is seeing; we will then get a strike.

 

Dr. Jones' book is out of print. I spoke with him a few years ago and asked him to get a second run printed but he was not excited about doing that for some reason.  You can find the book on Amazon or eBay for a lot of money.  I doubt your local library has the book but if it does, I suggest you read it and garner a lot of great scientific information.

 

Enjoyed your reply above. I did not take the time to delve into the frequencies bass can hear but it is in the book on page 108, with a chart called Provisional Hearing Curve for Largemouth Bass.

 

What I found to be very interesting is Dr. Jones came to the conclusion that when a bass rushes up to your bait and then turns away, we always thought it was because of color or how it looks.  Dr. Jones thinks it may be due to the vibrations your bait is sending having a greater input on why the fish does not hit the bait and swims away.

 

Go figure.

[QUAKEnSHAKE]

Yes

 

[scaleface]

3 minutes ago, QUAKEnSHAKE said:

Yes

Of course they can . Like my post in that same thread . I have called bass  out of trees by tapping a fingernail on a watch face while snorkeling  . The bass would come out and look directly at the commotion  .

[Smokinal]

Of course they can! The lure manufacturers say so!

[Sam]

1 hour ago, scaleface said:

Of course they can . Like my post in that same thread . I have called bass  out of trees by tapping a fingernail on a watch face while snorkeling  . The bass would come out and look directly at the commotion  .

Scaleface, I remember reading an article many years ago about a guy who was pounding a metal rod into the bottom of the creek by his dock when he got a strange feeling that someone or something was watching him.

 

He turned around to see over 20 large mouth bass hovering about 20 feet away, just watching him. His pounding on the metal rod got their attention and they swam over to see what was making the noise.

 

So you are totally correct and I agree with you. You made a little noise and the guy pounding on the metal rod made a lot of noise.

 

Now to get others to post their experiences and thoughts on the subject.

[Team9nine]

I'm leaning more towards Paul's side on this. Can they hear them - likely yes, but probably nowhere near the extent you might be thinking when you sit there and shake these baits or pull them by you in the water. Going back to Jones' book and others, it's pretty well accepted that 1000 Hz is about the high limit of bass hearing. I know of a study done that tested the dominant sound range of about 2 dozen different rattlebaits, and 20 of the baits had dominant ranges between 3200-10,000 Hz, well above the range of hearing for bass. Only a few had dominant ranges low enough that bass could likely hear them. That's not to say these same rattling baits aren't making some noise in the spectrum bass can hear, and bass can certainly feel (via displacement) and see them, so they are likely well aware of their presence in the area.

 

There are always a lot of variables at play, and it can be hard to isolate out specific ones which might be causing an outcome as opposed to the most obvious one. As Smokinal alluded to, pairing up what we think we know to be true with what the manufacturers tell us is true can be a dangerous combination for the wallet

[Todd2]

Reading this has really confused me...lol.. I read Dr. Jones book several years ago and remember reading about the frequency limitations but one of my main take aways was that lure speed changes, stop/go,  rhythms ....got more strikes than a steady retrieve in his testing. So the question is ....are they hearing the rattles or is it a lateral line pickup?

 

On a side note, Brewer's book that I just read focuses on steady retrieves.....which has been working for me in a few ponds I've hit but not yet tested on the big water due to ice and now muddy conditions.

 

Interesting thread...

 

 

 

 

[WRB]

Lateral line isn't used for hearing, it's used to detect pressure waves. Bass have hearing located in the head inner ear and swim ladder they use for detecting sound vibration like clicks crawdads make and  noises made by lure rattles. The difference being lateral line detects waves from a long distance to alert the bass something is approaching like your boat or school of baitfish or a lure from the pressure waves being generated. Hearing from what I have read and observed occurs at close range, in poor light they can hear something further away  then they can see it, in good light and clear water they can see further but not nearly as far as the feel water pressure movements. 

There is lots of white noise underwater from waves hitting the shore, boats running around, trolling motors, sonar impulses, birds diving or landing on the water, other fish swimming etc, etc.

How do we as anglers get the basses attention without alarming it? We use lures that try to mimick a living prey that is a easy meal verse all the other prey availble that is better at avioding becoming a meal. Lateral line early warning system, sight to see what is around them and hearing to hone in on a critter in low ligh or poor what clarity.

Bass use all their senses, including order at the same time. How a basses braid processes all this information is unknown.

Tom

 

[All Day Fishing]

Man the cheapest I have seen that book is at least $150! Would love to read it one day!  Thanks for sharing

[senile1]

2 hours ago, Team9nine said:

I'm leaning more towards Paul's side on this. Can they hear them - likely yes, but probably nowhere near the extent you might be thinking when you sit there and shake these baits or pull them by you in the water. Going back to Jones' book and others, it's pretty well accepted that 1000 Hz is about the high limit of bass hearing. I know of a study done that tested the dominant sound range of about 2 dozen different rattlebaits, and 20 of the baits had dominant ranges between 3200-10,000 Hz, well above the range of hearing for bass. Only a few had dominant ranges low enough that bass could likely hear them. That's not to say these same rattling baits aren't making some noise in the spectrum bass can hear, and bass can certainly feel (via displacement) and see them, so they are likely well aware of their presence in the area.

 

There are always a lot of variables at play, and it can be hard to isolate out specific ones which might be causing an outcome as opposed to the most obvious one. As Smokinal alluded to, pairing up what we think we know to be true with what the manufacturers tell us is true can be a dangerous combination for the wallet

This would be my take as well.  I was going to say that if a rattle were designed to make a sound in the frequency range that a bass hears then, yes, it would hear it.  But many are not.  

 

@Bluebasser86 made a good statement in a thread I was reading the other day but I don't remember which one it was.  He stated something to the effect that we must remember that bait fish don't start making rattling sounds when the water gets muddy and the bass still find them.  

[frogflogger]

Bass know/sense everything in their environment - how far away I don't know but even in dirty water I've caught many fish on hair jigs and grubs - they displace water as they move and I always figured the bass sense even the most subtle pressure waves - all of this is my own opinion/experience - I have a copy of Knowing Bass and I enjoy and learn from it - if you look at the shape of the most effective crawfish imitation in their experiments it resembles a grub (ned rig) bait which makes little if any noise but it does displace water.

[slonezp]

Maybe cadence has more to do with it than sound. Observe any creature. Change triggers reaction.

[Catt]

KVD swears by HydroWave technology

 

But what does he know about bass ?

[tracker01]

Yes, I read it on the internet.

[burrows]

Even better question is why do they eat a lure with rattles when there are no fish that make a rattling sound? Even the click sounds that craw fish make don’t  compared to a rattling lipless crank?

[Sam]

1 hour ago, Burro said:

Even better question is why do they eat a lure with rattles when there are no fish that make a rattling sound? Even the click sounds that craw fish make don’t  compared to a rattling lipless crank?

Burro, take it one step further: why do the bass hit our baits when most of our baits don't look like natural food?????

[Boomstick]

I posed the idea that maybe the bass to not hear the primary frequencies in the rattle, but there is likely other frequencies put out in the rattle that are not as loud that they might hear, although possibly not as effectively as a lower pitched rattle.

 

But I don't really know for sure.