Crazy Thought - Treat your fish

[Jack G]

I guess bass might be too dumb to figure risk/reward out. I have caught three bass in Florida, while fishing with shiners, that had been gut hooked and still had the hook in their throat when they hit my shiners. Actually, the last fish already had two hooks in him when I caught him. Amazed me that he could still eat a shiner.

Jack

[Anonymouse]

Fish do not have higher cognitive functions, it is strictly hind-brain stimulus and the instincts they are born with coupled with whatever stimuli (negative or positive) they have experienced throughout their life.
• Pain = avoidance, but it probably takes repeated experiences to make it sink in on the intuitive level - like training your cat, dog,or parrot, which are ALL considerably smarter.
• Yummy food & no negative consequences = EAT IT !!
Even insects can "learn" those things to some extent.

(Walleyes might be the exception that proves the rule however. They are certainly smarter than Anonymouse.)

[mjohnson3713@hotmail.com]

Don't feel bad! I remember my drinking days when 5 or 6 wasn't enough and the type of thoughts I had about fishing! Don't have a definitive answer for you but I do know that fish seem to bite better on certain baits from year to year....and I am talking about methods and colors. Fish don't think and I don't believe they become conditioned (unless it is in the same year.) But I have brought back crankbaits from 20 years ago that worked good at the time and then crapped out, only to work again many years down the road. That's why tackle companies love me!! I buy whatever is working at the time! So your question goes unanswered from me! I just learned a long time ago that there are no rules when it comes to fishing!!

[Anonymouse]

Originally Posted by mjohnson3713@hotmail.com

Don't feel bad! I remember my drinking days when 5 or 6 wasn't enough and the type of thoughts I had about fishing! Don't have a definitive answer for you but I do know that fish seem to bite better on certain baits from year to year....and I am talking about methods and colors. Fish don't think and I don't believe they become conditioned (unless it is in the same year.) But I have brought back crankbaits from 20 years ago that worked good at the time and then crapped out, only to work again many years down the road. That's why tackle companies love me!! I buy whatever is working at the time! So your question goes unanswered from me! I just learned a long time ago that there are no rules when it comes to fishing!!

Uh, there's one rule at least. You gotta go fishin' to fish...although Anonymouse COULD tell you about the time he was jigging in the clean-out hole of the 8" roof rain water drain stand-pipe in a new-built Sentry store he was Project Superintendent for in 1989.

[mjohnson3713@hotmail.com]

I don't care what you say right there!! Now that's funny!!

[bbheli]

Originally Posted by Anonymouse

Fish do not have higher cognitive functions, it is strictly hind-brain stimulus and the instincts they are born with coupled with whatever stimuli (negative or positive) they have experienced throughout their life.
• Pain = avoidance, but it probably takes repeated experiences to make it sink in on the intuitive level - like training your cat, dog,or parrot, which are ALL considerably smarter.
• Yummy food & no negative consequences = EAT IT !!
Even insects can "learn" those things to some extent.

(Walleyes might be the exception that proves the rule however. They are certainly smarter than Anonymouse.)

In human terms, it is doubtful that fish can "think" at all however observations of bass responses to specific stimuli reveal a number of facts about how well bass remember and learn. And learning is problem solving or "thinking" to some degree.

So what is the stimuli ? The trauma of the hook and the fight. It has been well proven by Berkley that bass strike rate on a lure go down drastically. That study to to the best of my recall did not cover period of time, in other words the same bait was presented over days, weeks, months, years. My question here is not if fish don't strike a lure that has been presented before, it is what would have happened had Berkleys tests would have included stuffing a minnow in the fish's moth upon release, what would have happened to the decline in strike rate.

[mjohnson3713@hotmail.com]

Ok now you are starting to think like I did when I was 10 whiskeys into the night!!!!

[Ozark Bob]

90 Proof? I was wondering if a chub would be better than a fathead? More memorable? Bob

[mjohnson3713@hotmail.com]

90 proof or more!! And the minnow depends on the lake! As long as we are telling drinking stories, much of my education came on the backs of great fisherman that loved to tell of their tournament experiences after having a few! I am 60 and don't have the stamina as much any more but I remember fishing low buck tournaments in my younger days and always going to the bar with the winners and listening to their loose lips after several! I fished the PWT part time in the early 90's and did the same thing, whether I did well or not! But like everything else in fishing, knowledge keeps evolving and we have to adjust or sink!!