Are fish any smarter today than years ago?

[GobbleDog]

And will they ever be any smarter (harder to catch) than they are today? Seems like Darwin's theory of evolution would gaurantee that fish would naturally get smarter. The one's that are easily caught get killed, the one's that aren't live on to procreate making more generations of bass with  similar "hard to catch" DNA traits.

Even in today's catch and release environment, fish still die after getting gut hooked or infections from hooks/hands....

I wasn't fishing 75 to 50 years ago so I don't know the real answer, but bass sure seem plenty aggressive today. Perhaps their killer instict is too inbedded to get breeded out in a short time.  Will it ever get bred out of them? Thoughts?

[Muddpuppy]

They haven't built any pizza huts yet and still fall for rubber worms.

I believe they can be conditioned, but I don't think that they have the ability to reason.

[BiggerWorm]

Gobble,

Did you get a turkey this year?  I don't believe fish are getting any smarter and I still don't buy the theory that they become lure wise.  As far as evolution (natural selection), this takes many years.  I think it is quite safe to say bass will not get any smarter in our life times, they'll still be hitting plasic worms and jigs.  By the way, have you ever seen a jig in the wild? LOL

Happy Fishing

[bigbass]

dbcwolf,   I have to respectfully disagree.   I don't think fish are any smarter than they were years ago,  but I do think we fisherman have educated a few of them through the years.

[Skeeter6598]

Fish don't have the ability for logical thought. They are all instinct. Fish may however become lure wise in a sense! They may become more observent as to what they are looking at the older they get, but they're not sitting there looking at a lure saying,

"George don't eat that. I ate one of those 2 years ago and the next thing I new I was staring at this strange creature holding me. I couldn't breath, and could see all of my friends and kin folk lying around, then heard this voice say, Now's not your time, go back and get bigger! Then bam I was back home!"

[roadwarrior]

"George, Don't eat that!"

Fish barely have a brain, they don't need one, but I think they do become more wary as they grow older.

Every now and then a new lure is invented that is magical for a while. Fish had never seen a Rapala for example and it looked just like the minnnows they were chasing everyday. Now, I know Rapalas are still effective, but not like they were when they were first introduced. Maybe they do "learn" something over time.

[Daniel_Hwang]

I don't think they've gotten smaller, just not as much fish and they don't like to bite as much as they use to.

[Skeeter6598]

Roadwarrior, That's the point I was trying to make but got carried away! LOL! ;D

I have noticed that everynow and then, when the lake has had a lot of pressure, I'll go and throw some of the OLD SCHOOL baits that they don't make anymore. Most of it I steal from dad's stuff and hope I don't lose it! I've noticed that when nothing is working I can go to these old baits and pick up fish that I wasn't before.

So I do believe they become wiser and more leary about different baits, but no smarter in the aspect of logical thought!

[Nick_Barr]

I think that fish can be accustomed to same lures and such, but you could still catch them with that lure if you experiment with retrieves. Also i agree that new lures seem to be magical for a while then they come back to the status of an everyday bait, that still catches alot of fish.

[fishinfool]

i don't think they've gotten smarter over the years, of course i don't truly know since i was fishing 100 years ago. but if i get skunked one day, i will just use the excuss that the area i was fishing had really smart fish and knew that i just wanted to catch them so they didn't bite.  

[Raul]

No sir they are not smarter, lures are an example of that, the jitterbug, the spook, the rapala original minnow, the bayou boogie ( to mention a few ) are still here decades after being developed and they still catch fish like they did back then this means that fish aren 't smarter, what happens is that the ammount of anglers has increased dramatically so fish are exposed with more frequency to many types of baits throughout a day, just imagine how many times in a weekend a bass sees a senko, what makes the difference is you, it is you who creates the magic, the lure is just a tool.

[GobbleDog]

Obviously I didn't mean smarter in terms of "hey George, what do you think of that lure..."  

I meant less aggresive. The idea being less aggressive bass are less likely to get caught and are more likely to pass on their DNA.

Do that for several hundred years and it seems like the aggresiveness (or whatever makes them vulnerable to getting caught on hook and line) would slowly get bred out of them.

[BiggerWorm]

I agree Gobble, but natural selection such as what your refering to takes thousands of years.  Most posts here are basically commenting on an individual fish becoming lure/technique wise, which may happen but I beleive it is limited.  

[GobbleDog]

natural selection such as what your refering to takes thousands of years.  

Species can change quicker than you think. The average height of a Civil War soldier in the mid 1800's was about 5'7".  Compare that with the average American male height today.

[Shad_Master]

Road Warrior is wrong, they do need a brain in order to function.  The problem is what we are all saying is that this creature with a brain the size of walnut that is used exclusively for instinct and reaction is able to outsmart us geniuses with all of our high powered baits and tackle :'(  Quick, somebody change the topic, I don't want to think about this. :-X

[Rattlinrogue]

I think with all of the fishing pressure that today's bass may be a bit more reluctant to strike an artificial bait.That's not to say you can't just slay 'em at times,but it seems like 25 years ago those days were more frequent.

[GobbleDog]

with all of the fishing pressure...

True. 100 years ago, how many people were catching bass in America? Probably not even a million. Today it's probably around 50 million or so. And today fisherman are equipped with depth finders, better lures, gps, trolling motors and every other invention that helps people catch bass.

[Muddpuppy]

George and his buddies eat what they have availiable they have no alternative. They also act out of self preservation, be it mateing, gaurding the nest or what ever. Lures are designed to trigger a response caused by these activities. They don't always have time to look at the menu, or the decisiveness to determine wether a bounceing jig is just passing thru or a ticket to the mother ship. It is a possible threat, and must be delt with the only way thay have. They may develope a more advanced and accute sensory system that enables them the ability to distinguish the difference between lures and food better over time. That also requires more brain capacity, so I wouldn't rush out and sell my boat just yet. As far as them passing on a gene to recognize a specific danger, well we are far more advanced and our kids still play in the streets.

[shiloh]

...this creature with a brain the size of walnut...

Whoa! It would be a  good-sized bass to have a walnut-sized brain  ;D

But then again, if it did have a powerful brain, that would allow it to be smart enough to survive and grow bigger, and then have room for a bigger brain, so it can grow...

[dope slap myself]

This is making my head hurt...

Maybe fisherman are getting stupider (taller, fer sure, per the Civil War example...but then again there were no Senkos during the Civil War...)

[sigh]

Fish will always be a challenge to catch...that's why we keep coming back.  If they jumped into the boat when you hold a lure aloft, that wouldn't be much fun...

[Curado]

Fish barely have a brain, they don't need one, but I think they do become more wary as they grow older.

Every now and then a new lure is invented that is magical for a while. Fish had never seen a Rapala for example and it looked just like the minnnows they were chasing everyday. Now, I know Rapalas are still effective, but not like they were when they were first introduced. Maybe they do "learn" something over time.

[Hot n Tot]

Instincts like spawning, food, and self preservation dictate the actions of all fish.  I don't think they get conditioned to lures except in small ponds where you would be consistently catching the same fish over and over usually with the same types of lures each time.  However, they have an incredible ability to determine what is natural and unnatural to their environment.

[lookin4lunkers]

I don't think they get smarter just more wary.

[Chris]

Fish learn from conditioning its not intelligence. The environment they live in today is nowhere near the same as 20 or 50 years ago. We have more boaters on the water and more fishermen. Fishing pressure is different. Bass are just reacting to the environment that they live in. Think about it this way your sitting in your bass boat with your trolling motor, depthfinder, and live well on. How much noise are you making? Fish get conditioned into relating that noise or boat traffic or fishing pressure with danger and become inactive or change positions to a safe area or zone. The fish knows something is different or threatening.

[GobbleDog]

The fish knows something is different or threatening.

Absolutely agree. I once read about a Snook farm in Tampa, FL. The biologist basically said they were pretty smart. He said when one person walked down to the tank,  the Snook all went up to the top of the tank knowing they were about to be fed. When two people walked down to the tank together, they all hid in the bottom corners of the tank because they all knew some of them were going to get netted.