Fish and music

[Duane-MI]

What are your thoughts on playing the radio in the boat while still fishing and trolling? Does it effect them?

[Rocker]

Only Country and Western,scares the heck out of those walleyes!Walleye love Rock and Roll :-)its a fact.

[Fish-on]

You are right about the country music. You'll only catch bullheads if you play it. Walleyes are rockers.

[Lund_Dude]

My experience is that country music makes the walleye want to mate their cousins, causes them to stop biting. Put on some Metallica and watch them shake their heads. ;-)

[Box]

Van Halen and ZZ Top seem to be the best.

Of course, no boat can be without ol' George Burns and the Watermelon Wine! :)

Roger Whitacker (my Dad's favorite) scares the sh-it out of all fish!

Box

[EAGLE EYES]

Fish can be sensitive to vibrations. I've noticed that eyes like the vibes coming the speakers. The more bass the better. Iron Maiden's bass player; Steve Harris brings in the eyes. ;-)

[firebird]

Stevie Ray Vaughn or Eric Clapton bring in the fish! They jump in the boat when they hear Buddy Guy or Koko Taylor. Dem' fish love the Blues!!

[FreeByrd]

It's gotta be SKYNYRD in my boat... Some Buffet on the way back to the dock works too...
Steve
FreeByrd

[Doug/CO]

I often wondered about the effect of playing music in the boat. Last summer I tried a controlled test - as controlled as you might expect. For several hours, my buddy and I fished the same point, with active walleyes. I played fairly loud music for 20 minutes, then off for 20 minutes, then on and off, over and over again. All the while I was logging our catch rate. I found no measurable difference whether the music was playing or not. For the record, its an aluminum boat, music fairly loud, and mostly Stevie Ray Vaughn or Gary Moore. I agree, walleyes love da blues! Also, we caught at least two fish per each 20 minutes of the test, so it seems to me that the quantity was adequate to be statistically significant. (But I'm no statitician). I'd be interested if anyone else tried to test the effect of their music on catch rates.

[Hans]

Fish under my boat seem to like both kinds of music, Country >and< Western. ;-)

Hans

[ufda]

Bass must have an incredible memory for music. If you play music like "Throw me in the River" the bass seem to memorize it and then you can have them mounted and they sing it back to you. No, really. My buddy's got one of them in his den. ;-)
ufda

[steve(IL)]

I don't know what the fish would have to say about it, but if I'm within earshot I'd sure let you know. Ask yourself this.... what if everybody cranked their favorite music on their stereo? Everything from Lawrence Welk to Iron Maiden? What a noisy mess.
Remember that sound carries especially far over water. Please be considerate of others who are using the same space and keep your music low or preferably off.

I realize that some people in the above posts are just having fun but I thought this was worth mentioning. I'll step down off the soap box now.... :-)

p.s. If it must be played, I'd vote for Steely Dan, Van Morrison,
Vince Guaraldi, Talking Heads and Neil(fossil that I am).

[Vickie]

I agree. We listen to Country all the time in the boat. They seem to bite best when Shania sings "Man, I Feel Like a Woman"

Happy Fishing. Vickie

[Hans]

Hey, if there's another boat within earshot, then the lake is way overcrowded. You from down south somewhere?
:-)

Hans

[cisco]

Stick with royalty -- e.g. Duke Ellington, Count Basie.

Under the influence of such sounds, it really doesn't matter if the fish are biting. Problem these days is that AM and FM stations that feature classic cool jazz are almost extinct -- have to go with the cassette player.

[EAGLE EYES]

Duke Ellington? Music is supposed ta' make em' bite, not bury their heads in the sand! :-) (Kiddin') What ever turns your prop Cisco, is fine with mua! (As long as I'm not close enough to hear the Duke that is) :-) EE

[Walleye Wisdom]

Sorry, it's gotta be rap for me! The Walleye's like to bump w/ da music. Nothin like a little Snoop Dogg and Dr.Dre gets em active!!!!

[Wallygetter]

We do a lot of trolling in Lake Michigan, whenever the action gets slow we put in a Randy Travis tape, I swear the fish must love it since we almost always catch fish as soon as it starts playing, or so it seems. I'm sure it must be just coincidence but it does seem to work. I hope I never lose my fish catch'in pardner Randy.

[firebird]

Actually, if I heard Randy Travis, I'd jump on a hook and hope to go under the knife, just to get away!! LOL

Hey cisco, your're right about the royalty, just have to add some Miles and Coltrane to balance things out a little. and for fun, Clark Terry, he might be able to "Mumbles" them into the boat.

[cisco]

Clark Terry got his start with Ellington -- Dig out some oldies and listen to the fine trumpets of Terry and Cat Anderson. And, for sax, no one was smoother than Paul Gonzalves. Winton does some justice to the classics of jazz, so I guess they're not all gone.

Incidentally, anyone care to mimic Randy Travis can do so by holding his nose and then trying to sing thru it. Travis would have been rejected by my high school choir director back in the '50s.

To call "rap" music does not even warrant a reply.

[Anti-Music]

I agree with this post. If I'm on fish and you come cruisin by with your music machine going, I'm looking for my favorite varmint caliber to take out your radio. If you want to cruise in your boat and listen to tunes then go out in the middle of the lake in about a 100 ft. of water and have a ball. Stay away from me, my structure, and my fish.

[TangledAngler]

One of the biggest fish of my career was caught during Hank, Jr.'s "Hog Wild". True story!

[Eric Olson]

LAST EDITED ON May-31-01 AT 06:25AM (CST)[p]You have to remember a couple things about fish taste...in music.

-Not all fish like the same music.
Mississippi back channel eyes like Dixie Chicks and Garth. They do prefer a warm up band however, Metallica seems to work well in the early AM (live recordings only)probably because this is a no cull river...

Erie Fish seem to like Fleetwood Mac and Santana.Mix in an occasional CW. MCcall CONVOY and they line up like cordwood.(Jason showed me that one).

Green Bay resident eyes like the Chicks, Fleetwood and Metallica, they do seem to prefer the song "nothing else matters". Must be something in the water.

Volume is not to be loud, this is a key because it makes the eyes move a little closer to hear exactly who's playing. On big water trolling this allows the outside boards to capture the attention and lulls them into thinking it a free "Dinner and a Concert" and ... WHAM.

Post note:
Yes, I really need to get out more, yes I need to stop thinking too much and yes, I really did enjoy this post. This is what makes fishing fun, kid yourself and everyone around you. Except my post, is serious, cause' all fisherman are liars cept'n me an you and sometimes I wonder about you!!

Tight Lines
Soft music
Big fish

Eric Olson
(I can't believe I put my name on this post!

[Caleb]

Well from my experience walleyes like to ROCK AND ROLL ALL NIGHT AND PARTY EVERY DAY so for this my choice is KISS.

[SUPERTROLLER]

Finely! A response that's talking some sense. More walleyes are caught using the K.I.S.S. principle than all other methods combined. It also doesn't hurt to throw in a CHEAP TRICK now and then.

P.S. Keep your Bass turned down. This lets your Treble penetrate in the water more readily.

SUPERTROLLER

[Wall-nut]

The Blues are the only music that works for walleye but you have to match the artist with the conditions. Full Moon: "Howlin' Wolf", Trophy Huntin': Willy "Big Eyes" Smith and after a rain: "Muddy Waters"

["COMA"]

I have really good luck while trolling to Jerry Jay walker, The Doors, Metalica and Match box 20! One day we fished for four hours with out a fish . We were extreamly depressed . I slipped in Jerry Jay walker and before the cd was done we had four in the well between 5 and three pounds!. Needless to say we were not depressed any more!. "COMA"

[Hydro]

I use these new speakers by Mirage called Oasis...truely awesome...totally waterproof. Sound incredible...During the blast its cranked up big time..helps me bust those belly washes from everybody else. But nobody has mentioned AC/DC....Whats up with that? 1980 grad.

[Starfish]

Is that largemouth bass or smallmouth bass? Gamagatsu or Mustad treble?