Fishing pressure

[Pat Brown]

If I ever saw @Catt and @A-Jay on my home lakes I'd probably have my head exploding to contend with and then after picking my brain and skull up and re assembling them - I'd have to probably go try another lake for the day.  No stone would be left unturned between the two of them!  😂

[A-Jay]

9 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

If I ever saw @Catt and @A-Jay on my home lakes I'd probably have my head exploding to contend with and then after picking my brain and skull up and re assembling them - I'd have to probably go try another lake for the day.  No stone would be left unturned between the two of them!  😂

You'd need to stick around.

Cuz I'm betting we might need an interpreter.

😅

A-Jay

 

[LrgmouthShad]

Like @TnRiver46 so eloquently stated, fishing pressure makes fish harder to catch. Stealth is the best course of action. No matter how quiet I am, nothing seems to beat:

1. Making as long a cast as possible in open water

2. Being as accurate as possible when picking apart cover 

3. Staying anchored/locked in place for a period of time

The concept is simple. You either catch them before they know you are there (long cast and quiet approach), catch them in where they holed up in when they heard you coming (cover), or stayed put long enough that the fish felt comfortable around you. 

[Swamp Girl]

1 hour ago, LrgmouthShad said:

1. Making as long a cast as possible in open water

2. Being as accurate as possible when picking apart cover 

 

Hey, we fish the same!

[T-Billy]

4 hours ago, Catt said:

I would rather fish behind 10 weekend warriors than 1 @A-Jay!

Absolutely!!! I only need to watch an angler for a couple minutes to decide whether I want to fish their used water or not. I have no problem fishing behind the vast majority of people.

 Once in a great while, I'll see someone who not only do I think it's not worth fishing behind them, but it is worth spending a bit of time watching them and taking some mental notes. Both @A-Jay and @Catt fall into that category of angler. 😉

[AlabamaSpothunter]

Pressure leads to really cool innovation.   I don't think Bass fishing would be nearly what it is without the constant arms race between humans and Bass.   I can't think of another species of fish that enables the angler to use as many different lures as Bass, and specifically LMB.   

 

 

[Catt]

4 hours ago, A-Jay said:

I'll be going the other way . .

 

That's my problem 😕 

 

I know this Alweld can't catch that Lund!

[The Budget Angler]

The spot where I got my PB was public and well-known but it had a reputation for being fishless (apparently every few years there was a sewage leak).  In the years after the cleanup, as people started fishing there more often, nothing would bite a lure.  You had to net the crawdads, mosquitofish, and freshwater shrimp and use those as bait.  I fished that system for many years after I caught my PB, and it never produced a bass of that caliber ever again.

 

I heard through the grapevine recently that they just had another sewage spill.  And so the cycle repeats...

 

Pressure has a profound effect on the feeding patterns of fish, and these fish got significantly less active and aggressive.  I've got a couple of spots up north that spew out some absolutely monster trout.  18" Brooks, 30" Browns, 24" Rainbows.  One is a tiny creek that people walk by without thinking to fish.  One is only accessible by one bridge or by knowing someone with property on the stream.  The other is a private pond on a ranch.  I've said it before and I'll say it again: the best spots are the ones that are hard to get to or hard to fish.  All the fair-weather anglers turn back just before they get to the good spot.  And those that do get there don't get there often and respect the fish enough to ensure they live on and grow extra big for the next adventurer to catch them.

 

One of the spots I mentioned above I would fish 2-3 times a week for the entire year except Dec-Mar when even I wasn't crazy enough to brave the ice.  I never over-pressured that system, and I'd catch a handful of giants every year.  If you're the only one fishing your spot, the only thing fishing a lot will do is allow you to hone your skill on those specific fish.  My PB brown is still out of that spot, and every time I go back, I know exactly where the fish will be.

 

TL;DR

Yes, fishing pressure can affect the fishing on any given waterbody.  However, it's unlikely for one person to cause that much pressure.

 

But even if you do overfish a spot, it just gives you an excuse to go out there and find more!

[AlabamaSpothunter]

A couple of things I'm extremely curious about are:

 

1.  After fish have been caught on a lure that tricks them into thinking it's a very particular meal they target, do they then have problems actually committing to eating the real thing.   So, when they eat a DT10 in Gizzard Shad in 11fow, do they have problems eating a real Gizzard Shad in 11fow.  

 

2.  To the first point, after a fish has been tricked on that bait, how long does it take if any time at all for the fish to resume feeding normally on the real version of the lure that tricked them.

 

Berkeley has done some studies on fish 'memory' IIrc, and again IIrc the results seem to indicate a fish could remember things for about two weeks.    

 

I find that a little hard to believe as you see some baits like the A-Rig and Whopper Plopper never return to their incredible fish catching ability as they enjoyed when first released to the masses.    

 

I'd hate to think that pressure actually makes the fish less likely to eat the real thing, but it's a very real possibility I've pondered for some time now.   

[Team9nine]

Studies have shown bass caught on lures typically resume normal feeding activity in under 24 hours. It takes a little longer for those bass subjected to tournament regimes (12-18 hrs) versus those caught and immediately released (6-10 hrs). 

Some other thoughts: 

“Pressure” also needs to be taken in context. For example, the 400 yearly tournaments on Rayburn sounds like a lot, but at well over 100,000 acres, and according to Texas’ own surveys there, actual fishing pressure is only about 5 hrs per acre. Compare that to a place like Guntersville at about half the size, which is about 4X that amount (19 hr/ac). The smaller the body of water, usually the greater the effect. In Indiana, our two largest reservoirs (8-10k acres) average 8X and 10X greater fishing pressure (41 & 48 hrs/ac) than Rayburn does.

[Tennessee Boy]

There are many controlled experiments that confirm bass do learn to avoid lures.  In his book Knowing Bass,  Dr Keith Jones shared some research he did at Berkeley.   Groups of six bass were allowed to freely strike at a minnow bait for five minutes.   During their first exposure to the lure they hit the bait on average a combined 24 times.   They were then separated into two groups.  The first group was retested 2 weeks later and they hit the lure on average a little over 2 times.  The second group was tested 3 months later and hit the lure more than the first group (about 4 times) but still far less than when originally tested.  These bass were not hooked but still learned and remembered that the minnow bait was not food.

[A-Jay]

52 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

There are many controlled experiments that confirm bass do learn to avoid lures.  In his book Knowing Bass,  Dr Keith Jones shared some research he did at Berkeley.   Groups of six bass were allowed to freely strike at a minnow bait for five minutes.   During their first exposure to the lure they hit the bait on average a combined 24 times.   They were then separated into two groups.  The first group was retested 2 weeks later and they hit the lure ten times less.  The second group was tested 3 months later and hit the lure more than the first group but still far less than when originally tested.  These bass were not hooked but still learned and remembered that the minnow bait was not food.

Interesting.

I pretty much came to the same conclusions in my high school cafeteria. 

Not much if any of that mess was real food either.

A-Jay

[MN Fisher]

2 hours ago, A-Jay said:

I pretty much came to the same conclusions in my high school cafeteria. 

Not much if any of that mess was real food either.

There was a reason I took most of my lunches kitty-corner across the street at Bridgemans (think Friendly's for the New England folk).

[thediscochef]

In the public lake I mostly fish, there are no secrets, there are no secret spots. If you can throw it at bass, they've probably seen it by now. Stealth, persistence, and presentation have been my best assets to that. I have noticed that when I fish less pressured waters my catch rates are 2x or more than they are at my usual public lake. One private pond around memorial day I got 16 in one day and could barely eek out 5 at the public lake the same week. It's important for me to adjust expectations for the water I'm fishing to avoid unnecessary frustration 

[Pat Brown]

3 hours ago, thediscochef said:

It's important for me to adjust expectations for the water I'm fishing to avoid unnecessary frustration 

 

 

This is important in LIFE not just fishing - and yet still, it is SO SO good to internalize this wisdom for bass fishing.

[Swamp Girl]

2 hours ago, Pat Brown said:

 

 

This is important in LIFE not just fishing - and yet still, it is SO SO good to internalize this wisdom for bass fishing.

 

Hear, hear.

[Team9nine]

Was just skimming through the latest BB when I saw this Q & A piece with Milliken on pressure vs. lure design/innovation:

 

Did that level or style of competition (Elite Series) give you any ideas for new baits?

 

> "Ooo that's a good one. I don't know if it was the level or the style as much as just how fast fishing is changing with how the fish are reacting to different baits. It's been that same way for like the last 3 years, I would say.

 

> "The fish are getting conditioned and changing so rapidly. You constantly have to stay on top of what they're doing that moment.

 

> "...if you fish the same body of water with a lot of tournaments, if you fish a smaller body of water with a lot of tournaments – you can see the fish changing every 6 months even.

 

> "So I think just overall fishing pressure has caused a lot of the baits we're working on right now to come into fruition."

[Woody B]

IMHO there's a BUNCH of good comments in this thread.   Most of the time I only get to fish on weekends, and the lake is crowded.   I get a kick out of watching people fish.  Sometimes I learn stuff...sometimes I laugh.  I think at least in some cases the Bass know when the people fishing leave.   This Spring I was fishing a row of lay downs.   A couple tournament "anglers" came flying up in their 70mph boat to the lay down right above where I was fishing. (~50 yards away)  Both of them made 2 or 3 casts each, burning buzz baits around the lay down, then they sped off.  I eased up right after they left and caught a fat 6 pound Bass on my first cast on a spinnerbait, into the lay down.   It's my belief that they "woke" the Bass up, and it was aware when they left.   I ease up there, made a precise cast, and the Bass thought it was breakfast time.   I really hate they didn't see me catch it, since they cut right in front of me.  They're casts simply weren't accurate enough to catch a big Bass.   I made a super accurate cast into the cover, but I'll always wonder if the Bass hearing them leave helped me slip in and catch it.   

 

In pressured water I believe the strike zone is tiny.   I also believe the strike zone is usually bigger in non pressured water.   I believe stealth is important in both pressured and non pressured water.  Perhaps it's more important in un fished water, where humans usually aren't around.   

 

 

I catch Bass behind other "anglers" all the time.  What I see them doing helps me determine if I go in right behind them or come back later.   

 

I believe lure selection is way more important in pressured waters.   I also believe the latest greatest newest lure isn't always the ticket.   I like going back to lures and techniques that worked decades ago that everyone has move on from.   

 

 

[Swamp Girl]

1 hour ago, Woody B said:

They're casts simply weren't accurate enough to catch a big Bass. 

 

SO IMPORTANT!

 

1 hour ago, Woody B said:

I'll always wonder if the Bass hearing them leave helped me slip in and catch it.   

 

Cool idea. 

[evilcatfish]

I think a certain amount of pressure is a good thing. It makes us fishermen adapt and think outside the box. While some are a little goofy, the unique baits that come out of Japan are often born from pressure and the need to try something new.

 

This said, I have seen social media induced pressure really hurt some smaller waters. A friend of mine and his stepson started fishing the past few years in mostly local ponds and creeks. I enjoy seeing pictures of the fish they catch and often hook them up with some baits and techniques to try. Well they found a somewhat obscure pond located on the edge of a neighborhood and industrial area. This place didn't look like much but was full of 3-4# bass, and apparently a good population of bluegill and channel cats. Instead of keeping quiet about a good thing, they started posting pictures on the Fishbrain app. Needless to say, more people started showing up to fish there, some keeping everything they caught with fishing quality going downhill. The worst part was the influx of people brought litter and trash being left all over. It turned out the property was owned by one of the businesses in the industrial park, who were generally ok with people fishing there. What they weren't ok with was people leaving litter everywhere and parking in their lot during business hours. Now nobody gets to fish there. Seems like its in our human nature to love things to death, or is that just greed? 

[Zcoker]

Don't worry about it and just fish. Fish are fish, and it's up to you to figure out how to catch them no matter where you fish at. Fishing pressure is couple of words that mean nothing to the fish. Perhaps they see the same baits over and over pass them up. Perhaps a highly fished place may need re-evaluated, maybe fishing at night when no one is around. Minor adjustments. I will say to NEVER underestimate a place that may seem "highly pressured". I once caught an 8lb bass in a community lake jammed pack with people and ski boats, right in the middle of the narrow ski lane, never in a million years would I have thought to hook and land that one! 

[FishTax]

Pressure doesn't impact my fishing routine, as long as people aren't in my personal space and I have the space to do my thing. With that said, I think @Pat Brown said something which was maybe overlooked but is also my observation at least in central NC where we are. Unpressured fisheries tend to be full of small/stunted fish. Anecdotal, but he and I both seem to have observed this in various places, in my experience small private ponds which are everywhere around here seem to be like that. 

 

Also, I think the fish learn the lures and react to that more than anything else. If you hit them with the frog every day for a week, you will see a diminishing return. Switch to a fluke, etc., and you're back in action. 

 

Last thought- I have a theory that heavy pressure impacts their feeding patterns. On my home lake, it's electric only and you have to access through the marina which closes at 7p. If you happen to live by the lake and can slip a kayak in from private land, rumor has it 🤫 that the bite turns on some evenings between 7-8p and you can have a beautiful evening alone on the water and get some serious fish to bite, even though it's a very heavily pressured lake with regular tournaments on it during the weekends. Totally different body of water when it's 'closed', but the same fish... 

[Pumpkin Lizard]

On 9/15/2024 at 9:12 AM, Team9nine said:

Was just skimming through the latest BB when I saw this Q & A piece with Milliken on pressure vs. lure design/innovation:

 

Did that level or style of competition (Elite Series) give you any ideas for new baits?

 

> "Ooo that's a good one. I don't know if it was the level or the style as much as just how fast fishing is changing with how the fish are reacting to different baits. It's been that same way for like the last 3 years, I would say.

 

> "The fish are getting conditioned and changing so rapidly. You constantly have to stay on top of what they're doing that moment.

 

> "...if you fish the same body of water with a lot of tournaments, if you fish a smaller body of water with a lot of tournaments – you can see the fish changing every 6 months even.

 

> "So I think just overall fishing pressure has caused a lot of the baits we're working on right now to come into fruition."

 

True but this is really nothing new. I remember in the '90s Zoom would come up with a hot new color and on the lakes I fished in Georgia every fish would see it in a matter of weeks or less and the color wouldn't be hot anymore. It for sure was happening before that too.

[geo g]

Under fishing pressure, I will go into stealth mode.  I will immediately check the wind direction, and drift silently through what I think is a previous decent fishing area.  I will put out a drift bag that slows the drift even in heavy winds.  I stay off the trolling motor as much as possible, and slow down presenting a down size bait.  I will slowly drag the bait, sometimes letting out extra line periodically, so it stays in place longer.  Many bites occur during these long pauses.  Completing a pass I may power up and drift through the same area again, depending on the faith I have in this area.  Slow, silent, and patience are the key.  Sometimes the bass's curiosity will overcome it's weariness!  

[Pumpkin Lizard]

Cool story (for me at least) from the weekend. Got a tip from my local tackle shop about a stretch of bank at a nearby Northwest Missouri lake.  This lake gets hammered by boat and bank anglers.  But one area gets neglected because by late spring nobody wants to beat the brush to get to one spot. Even the boats don't want to get into this spot. It poured early Sunday and I timed my arrival for the rain stopping. I managed to get into that spot on foot and found a couple hundred yards all to myself and the fish and the birds were going nuts on the shad. Within 30 minutes I had five 15 inch plus fish landed and then a solid 4 lb fish a bit later on. A bunch more after that. Making small talk on my out at the parking lot nobody really caught anything worth. Sometimes it's about finding the right place at the right time.