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Sound and Fish
Blog by: Lloyd Tackitt 8/2/2016 (Return to blogs)
Fish have highly developed hearing senses. Different species have different means and methods and abilities, so it is hard to generalize other than to say they are good at it.
Of all their senses hearing may be the most important one. Consider that sound travels extraordinarily fast and far in water, as opposed to vision which is limited even in the clearest of waters. Vision is also impacted by obstructions and the amount of available light, but sound is completely indifferent to light and obstructions.
Smell is also important and most fish have well developed senses of smell. But smell is also limited to relatively (to sound) short distances and swirling water currents.
Sound travels faster in water than it does in the air. 4.3 times faster in fact. I've seen this in action. Once I was fishing in the river. About a quarter mile away a man was driving steel tee fence posts into the ground with one of those hammers that's a pipe with two handles and a heavy end. I could see him raise the hammer up and then strike, and then wait for the sound which came considerably later. There were some small bluegills right in front of me and they were reacting to the strike on the tee post. They reacted well before I could hear the sound myself. They were reacting to a sound that traveled through the ground to get to the water before traveling through the water. I could hear the strike but just barely. The fish would "jump" sideways every strike.
Just this weekend I was fishing in the river and I heard two men talking back and forth. I could see nearly a mile up and a mile down stream, and didn't see anyone. Eventually two kayaks came into view. These two guys were talking to each other at a normal volume, and the sound was carrying so far because it was over water and it was a quiet day. I wondered how much of that the fish could hear, and how much it might affect them.
I've seen thousands of kayaks go by over the years and these two were pretty quiet in comparison to most kayakers.
Fairly often one of the men would make a paddle hits kayak noise. These sounded like bass drum beats, as I guess a plastic kayak does become a drum. I have no doubt the fish were disturbed by that sound, and that sound would carry even further than the men's voices did. I heard those drum beats long after their voices died out, and long after they were around the bend and out of sight.
In the 45 minutes or so I could see them I saw them catch two fish, two small bass. They were both steadily casting the whole time. The covered nearly two miles of river, averaging one fish per mile (since that was for two men that would be an average of one fish every two miles per fisherman) that I could see and I don't think I missed much, if any. Would they have caught more if they'd been real quiet? I think so, I really do. By comparison I caught several while they were in sight, but not when they were close.
So I'm wondering if these relatively quiet kayakers sounded like a bass drum parade to the fish up and down the river. I'm thinking probably yes, yes they did. I figure the fish heard them a couple of miles away, coming and going.
Stealth is a great benefit to a fisherman. Sounding like a bass drum parade isn't stealth.
I've talked before about how fish react to objects above the water, being as "unvisible" as possible is also part of stealth.
A brightly colored kayak moving across the surface with a man sitting up on top of it waving his arm and pounding on a bass drum? Well...
Where I fish the river has primarily a gravel bottom. I can hear the gravel crunch under my feet as I move if I move rapidly. Even when I move with maximum stealth I'm convinced the fish still hear that crunching sound as a distinctive and alarming sound. I'd bet they can hear it a good quarter of a mile away too. There's not much I can do about that except to step as carefully and slowly as I can, and pause when I fish, keeping my feet still. I do that a lot, I'll move soft as I can to the next position then stay there for a long time casting away.
That has the added benefit of slowing me down so that I cover the water much better, and that has been a boon to my fish catching percentage. To put it simply I catch a lot more fish by fishing each piece of water thoroughly and persistently and for quite a good bit of time. Unlike the kayakers that at their speed of travel never cast to the same area twice, in their case it was more like each cast was 50' from the last and next one. But they were having fun in their way as I have fun in my way - so I'm not criticizing, just saying they probably miss a ton of quality fish and pointing out how sound and sight work against them. Those big fish didn't get big by being brave in the face of loud noises and bright lights after all.
Another time this past weekend I was fishing, alone as far as I could see and hear, and catching a good number of big bass. Then two ladies with two small daughters came out into the river to float around in blow up tubes. The talked constantly and loudly, the kids screamed and squealed shrilly and loudly and constantly, there was a continual splashing of the water by all four of them. They couldn't have made more noise if they had tried. They were at least half a mile away. I didn't get another bite after they came out to play, and I'm sure it was the noise. So I was convinced that stealth counts, yet again, based on observation.
Those are some of my thoughts. If catching fish is what you are after, silence is golden.
Blog content © Lloyd Tackitt
Comments
anglerwannabe
08.02.16 11:39 AM
nice blog even if I don't 100% concur. Since primarily fishing from a toon or tube fish catching hasn't been much of an issue. Consider in the tube wearing large flippers and constantly kicking,, cannot tell you how many time I've caught fish right at the toon or tube. Although I would certainly think that waters that are traditionally quieter your assessment would be far more likely.
Flyrodn
08.02.16 12:06 PM
I think it depends on the situation. If the waters are typically quiet, you bet. Yet some of my best catching has been around boat ramps when traffic is heavy, or fishing mud lines when boat traffic is at its worse. I think in those cases, the fish adapt to the noise and ignore it.
Kennywho
08.02.16 1:22 PM
I'm sure moving around in my aluminum jon boat affects the # of fish caught. The trade off is that I can carry lots more gear with me than when wading. Of course, I never said I know how to use all that stuff! LOL
Skookshunter
08.02.16 2:13 PM
I think it's more the vibrations being felt in the water that spook the fish and not necessarily the talking. Your example of the guy hitting posts with his hammer tells me that the fish probably feel that thump every time the guy hit the post. They didn't necessarily hear the noise made above land. I don't think sound above water would travel very well underwater especially at that distance. Have you ever gone swimming where you dive into a pool and you can't hear anything happening on land until you surface? Same principal. I do agree it might matter to a certain extent, but I think being stealthy with your feet and not disturbing the water is more important. Just my two cents
sportrider
08.02.16 5:04 PM
my research on this shows fish prefer Metallica to any kind of hip hop...
bratfish
08.02.16 7:04 PM
i've found Big Lake Trout like music, my ipods Mackinaw approved.
D-Zilla
08.02.16 9:23 PM
I've noticed at Jackson, the fish seem to bite better AFTER the parties start on the water. I love to get out there before the boaters, but the fishing is slow until the boats and ski's show up. I think they are accustomed to the noise. This is on THAT specific lake though, and results may vary.....Just MY observation having fished that lake A LOT this year.
Lloyd Tackitt (author, aka Lloyd Tackitt)
08.03.16 6:25 AM
The consensus seems to be that it depends on the normal ambient noise level for that particular body of water, and that makes perfect sense. Kind of like Vinny in the jail house. I might try some Beethoven on my local fish, see what they think...
Dave Mauldin
08.11.16 9:44 PM
I have proven scientificially that black bass in SE Texas prefer C&W, and especially like Patsy Cline in the morning hours....not sure about other fish
About the Author
I live on the edge of the Brazos River. I walk out my front door and into the river and - boom - I am fishing just like that. For me the river is fascinating. The mile long stretch I fish is a microcosm of the river, I have it all in that one mile. Trying to figure out where the fish are, what they are doing, why they are doing it, what they are biting, if they are biting - this is what keeps me in the river casting flys. I fly fish almost exclusively. It isn’t that I am a fly fishing snob, it’s that fly fishing works – it’s effective - and it has added benefits. I carry all my tackle in a vest, no tackle box needs to be dragged along. The casting itself is fun, even when I don’t catch fish I’ve enjoyed the experience of casting. Fly rods enhance the experience of bringing fish in. I like the hands on the line feel instead of the feel of line spooling up on a reel and muted down through a gear and crank system. Fish fight better and feel better on a fly rod. Fly fishing just feels better to me than other methods.