bass behavior Bass Stupid Or Clever Species?

[ATA]

So I know it is some kind of not really a question, But it comes to my mind last day the I was fishing in dirty water(I mean it it was dirty Balboa park lake in Van Nuys,CA).

I was casting in same place and pass same line that I was getting short strikes on my Texas rig. I can tell I did it 10 times and in same location same fish bite my worm., even I hook couple times but I couldn't land the fish(I know Jizz one of those days), Anyways even after hooking or pulling the fish, that bass still continue to do it.\

So are they really clever or as I saw, they are really stupid and they don't learn their lessons? I hope for second one :-).

Thank you in advance for reading and comments.

[jbsoonerfan]

They just eat, they are opportunistic feeders. They may be seeking out a meal or a meal may just happen to swim by and they decide they want to eat it. I don't think there is a lot of thought process that goes on with a bass. I'm sure some will disagree and say they can become aware of certain baits and they won't bite them after they have seen them over and over again, but I don't know if I buy that.

 

If you have ever sight fished you will know that there are times a fish isn't going to bite your lure no matter what you do and other times they will eat it time after time. Guys practice all the time without a hook so they can see if a bass is aggressive. A lot of them spoke of this at the last BPT event on Fork. They knew if they could get a fish (that was on a bed) to commit to biting then they could catch them on tourney day. Sometimes fish on a bed aren't necessarily feeding though, they are protecting their eggs/bed.

 

All in all, I don't think they are as smart as some people give them credit for. Hard to catch? They can be, but IMO it doesn't mean they are smart.

[SWVABass]

They have survival instincts. Some times this plays to our advantage, such as a reaction strike from a neutral or active fish.

 

Other times they seem clever and we don’t get bit, fish that are not active or neutral fish that do not bite out of impulse. 
 

our job is to find those active fish and figure out what they are keyed in on. Replicate that over and over now you are pattern fishing and not just junk fishing.

[WRB]

You actually went fishing at Balboa park! Everyone in Van Nuys let go their pet fish into Balboa park ponds. It's like fishing at a pet shop every type of fresh fish species live there....the few bass are trying to spawn and fend off who knows what egg eater is raiding the nest sites.

Tom

[ATA]

2 minutes ago, WRB said:

You actually went fishing at Balboa park! Everyone in Van Nuys let go their pet fish into Balboa park ponds. It's like fishing at a pet shop every type of fresh fish species live there....the few bass are trying to spawn and fend off who knows what egg eater is raiding the nest sites.

Tom

desperate times desperate measure, haha. anyways I start to hit Castaic again and it was good.

[The Short Fisherman]

bass can be tricky to catch at times but I find that they are usually pretty dumb and can bite the same bait multiple times. Compared to some other fish they are a lot easier to catch

[ATA]

22 minutes ago, The Short Fisherman said:

bass can be tricky to catch at times but I find that they are usually pretty dumb and can bite the same bait multiple times. Compared to some other fish they are a lot easier to catch

Can we say the trouts are smarter?

[WRB]

It's not about IQ it's about prey sources. 

LMB have....you guest it a large mouth to capture a wide verity of prey types. Smallmouth still have big mouths compared to most trout species, however some trout like Browm and Lake trout are prey fish predators with big mouths that have teeth.

Tom

[The Short Fisherman]

21 minutes ago, ATA said:

Can we say the trouts are smarter?

im not sure about trout because i dont fish for them much but I know that salmon and steelhead(which i geuss is actually technically a rainbow trout) are a lot "smarter" than bass. They're a lot more line shy/wary and are more picky than bass. A lot of people will probably disagree but i actually find carp to be pretty smart as well(unless if they live in a neighborhood pond and get fed bread everyday). In my opinion carp are almost harder to catch than steelhead(or on a fly rod at least) because of how easily spooked they are

[WRB]

Steelhead are sea run rainbow trout, salmon are salmon both in the same family of fish with sight feeding habits. Bass on the other hand are sunfish family that use both sight and lateral line senses to locate prey. Carp have higher developed sense of smell using odors to locate food, both vegetarian and animal. None of these fish species are intelligent but often outsmart anglers trying to catch them.

Tom

[Catt]

3 hours ago, ATA said:

same fish bite my worm

 

How you know it was the same fish? ?

[The Short Fisherman]

13 minutes ago, WRB said:

Steelhead are sea run rainbow trout, salmon are salmon both in the same family of fish with sight feeding habits. Bass on the other hand are sunfish family that use both sight and lateral line senses to locate prey. Carp have higher developed sense of smell using odors to locate food, both vegetarian and animal. None of these fish species are intelligent but often outsmart anglers trying to catch them.

Tom

I geuss that no fish is smart but i do find that salmon steelhead and carp spook a lot easier than bass do, making them seem smarter. They also seem to learn quicker than bass. I have had some bass bite, get hooked and landed on the same bait multiple times, however when i hook a salmon or steelhead on a lure or a fly and they get off they purposely avoid that fly or lure i hooked them on

[ATA]

59 minutes ago, Catt said:

 

How you know it was the same fish? ?

it is impossible so many fish stay in group like that in such long time, at least I think it was same fish, also same behavior to react to the lure.

[OCdockskipper]

From watching the bass in my koi pond, I would say that bass learn faster and retain what they learn more than the carps domesticated cousin, the Koi.  When I walk up to the pond, the bass always swims over to the spot that I throw goldfish in, turns & looks at me.  When I am feeding him, he follows my hand and typically hits the goldfish as they touch the water.  We have a large bluegill in the pond as well, he does that to a lesser degree with the mealworms, although he is a bit more wary (maybe because there is a predator not far away 24 hrs a day).  The Koi don't seem to notice people, they are just too busy rooting around looking for something to eat.

 

One of our Koi can see the pellets if they land on a lily pad.  He goes over to the pad & bumps it until the pellet falls off.

On 4/3/2020 at 8:41 PM, ATA said:

it is impossible so many fish stay in group like that in such long time, at least I think it was same fish, also same behavior to react to the lure.

I think it is the opposite.  It would be less likely a single fish stayed in a spot, unless it was on a bed or the spot had some very secure cover. 

 

I have had large schools of bass stay at a single dock or brushpile for over an hour as I catch & release them from that spot

[Ogandrews]

I don’t think bass are particularly smart but instead are aggressive at some times and finicky at others. I would say in general they are smarter than musky though, which are considered to be one of the if not the hardest freshwater fish in the America to catch. Musky will follow the most unrealistic bait doing a circle next to the boat while the fisherman has the tip of their rod in the water and then eat after the 10th time around. I think that this behavior has a lot to do with them being the apex predator in their waters and really not having anything that can hurt them once they are at adult size besides people.

[ATA]

9 hours ago, Ogandrews said:

I don’t think bass are particularly smart but instead are aggressive at some times and finicky at others. I would say in general they are smarter than musky though, which are considered to be one of the if not the hardest freshwater fish in the America to catch. Musky will follow the most unrealistic bait doing a circle next to the boat while the fisherman has the tip of their rod in the water and then eat after the 10th time around. I think that this behavior has a lot to do with them being the apex predator in their waters and really not having anything that can hurt them once they are at adult size besides people.

ive always wish to check that from my checklist, it is really odd, so motion triggers them not lures.

[Ogandrews]

7 minutes ago, ATA said:

ive always wish to check that from my checklist, it is really odd, so motion triggers them not lures.

I wouldn’t say it’s just motion. When they want to feed they will eat pretty much anything they see, doesn’t matter if it’s a little 3 inch crank or a 20 oz musky lure a lot of the time. The hard part about musky fishing is being in the right place at the right time when that feeding window opens up, sometimes it’s 5 mins out of the day. Speed can sometimes turn negative fish on into feeding, part of why you see so many musky guys burning baits as fast as they possibly can. There’s a lot to triggering a musky, hard to put it all into one reply

[Mobasser]

From what I've read, carp are a very sought after fish in Europe. Special teqniques have been developed to catch them. Still I don't think they are "smart". They become very wary in shallow water. Bass are geared towards food, and survival. They can be hard to catch at times, but, I don't think they are especially smart

[geo g]

Not smart, part of brain responsible for learning is on the tiny side.  Do have significant sense of smell, lateral line sensors are very sensitive.  Programed through thousands of years to react to certain environmental changes and stimuli.  Smart is not the adjective to define bass behavior.  

[soflabasser]

On 4/3/2020 at 8:49 PM, WRB said:

You actually went fishing at Balboa park! Everyone in Van Nuys let go their pet fish into Balboa park ponds. It's like fishing at a pet shop every type of fresh fish species live there....the few bass are trying to spawn and fend off who knows what egg eater is raiding the nest sites.

Tom

I did some research on Balboa Lake Park and learned that many species of exotic fish have been caught there. Saw a video of a man catching a very nice bass from that lake and it does not surprise me since the bass that live there have lots of tilapia to eat. 

8 hours ago, Mobasser said:

From what I've read, carp are a very sought after fish in Europe. Special teqniques have been developed to catch them. Still I don't think they are "smart". They become very wary in shallow water. Bass are geared towards food, and survival. They can be hard to catch at times, but, I don't think they are especially smart

Carp can be difficult to catch at times, especially if they have been caught before. Other times they are easy to catch if they are actively feeding.

[ATA]

2 minutes ago, soflabasser said:

I did some research on Balboa Lake Park and learned that many species of exotic fish have been caught there. Saw a video of a man catching a very nice bass from that lake and it does not surprise me since the bass that live there have lots of tilapia to eat. 

ive been catching so many bass there, but always small size. my friend told me he catches a fish with three eyes there, LOL

[soflabasser]

On 4/4/2020 at 11:02 AM, Ogandrews said:

The hard part about musky fishing is being in the right place at the right time when that feeding window opens up, sometimes it’s 5 mins out of the day. 

Catching big bass in public waters is very similar to musky fishing. You need to know when to fish, what to fish with, and have lots of patience. 

9 minutes ago, ATA said:

ive been catching so many bass there, but always small size. 

There are very nice bass in that lake you just have to find out what they like and fish with it. That is one of the things that makes bass fishing so fun.

[Ogandrews]

7 minutes ago, soflabasser said:

Catching big bass in public waters is very similar to musky fishing. You need to know when to fish, what to fish with, and have lots of patience.

 

I’ve always thought their very similar. Your out there for that one bite and sometimes it takes days or weeks even to get one. I’ve always been interested in true trophy hunting because of how much I like musky fishing, cool thing about muskies though is they get over 50lbs and close to 60” and have teeth that can cut someone’s hand off. Makes it interesting 

[soflabasser]

10 minutes ago, Ogandrews said:

I’ve always thought their very similar. Your out there for that one bite and sometimes it takes days or weeks even to get one. I’ve always been interested in true trophy hunting because of how much I like musky fishing, cool thing about muskies though is they get over 50lbs and close to 60” and have teeth that can cut someone’s hand off. Makes it interesting 

If you are good at catching big bass you will most likely be good at catching musky. This was something I was told by a hardcore musky fisherman before I went musky fishing for the first time. He was right since I caught a big musky the first day I fished for them and I caught more of them in following vacations. Having patience and being persistent is far more valuable than anything else when targeting these fish. 

[frogflogger]

On 4/3/2020 at 9:18 PM, ATA said:

Can we say the trouts are smarter?

Not a chance - bass are genius compared to trout. Trout can be wary but not smart.