Can fish sense electronics?

[ERdeerhunter]

My dad just got back from a weekend on Lake of the Woods. About 9:00 this morning he was watching his Vexilar FL-18 when he noticed the transducer started to move in his hole. He leaned forward and to his surprise saw about a 5# eelpout nosing his transducer and trying to push it up his hole! He said this eelpout nosed his transducer about halfway up the hole (they had 9" of ice) before he finally gave up and bugged out. He said it didn't seem like this fish just stumbled into his hole, it was actively trying to attack his transducer. He was in about 22 feet of water with 3 buddies, he says nobody would have believed him if he didn't have witnesses.

Has anyone ever had this happen before? Makes me wonder if fish can sense anything with their lateral line when they come up to check your jig.

[Gissert]

I dont know if they can sense it, but I was fishing crappies on Stevens Bay of LOW near Nestor Falls and had something similar happen.

The crapies had vanished, and there was a big blip a few feet below the ice. I peered down the hole and there was a 35ish inch pike cruising. That answered the question as to why the crappies scattered.

A few minutes later, the vex started to slide to the hole. The pike had grabbed the transducer and was giving it a good shake.

[walleye44]

I know when we are fishing up at LOW and stop getting fish we do all shut out marcums and vexilars off until we start getting fish again.

[usmcjsy]

I think they can sense it. The fish are very receptive to any change in their enviroments. The electronics could give off some sort of signal that the fish can hone in on. It may scare or annoy some fish and it may attract others. Either way I think it could in the end affect your bite. I try and use the least amount of electronics as possible. I have never really noticed a great difference in using them. I found the most usefull tool on the lake and finding the fish to be my GPS.

[Gordie]

sounds to me like it called them in or atleast the pout

[slipperybob]

LOL, I had a pike playing fetched with my transducer. I can only assume the fish had been staring at it for a while. When I looked, all I saw was a flash of the tail. Also that one time a rainbow trout came up through the ice hole in the transducer hole in the middle of the night. I was about to jump, thinking muskrat attack! LOL.

[cluelessfisherman]

I had the same thing happen with a pout on leech lake.

[Stick in Mud]

Those pout can be pretty aggressive in the wintertime. I've had them try to eat my camera before. I bet if you put a pop can on a string down the hole one of them would start giving it a hard time.

[Ice_Ice_Baby]

Q: Can fish sense electronics? A: Absolutely

Q: Does it hurt your fishing? A: Not usually but sometimes in super heavy pressure areas.

Tony

[PerchJerker]

I don't believe that fish can sense electronics. I've talked with tech guys at two of the big, well known companies that make fish finders, and they say both companies have done extensive testing that proves the fish can't sense the electronics. Same concept as how dogs can hear higher pitched sounds than humans can hear, or how we can't detect radio waves, etc ..... fish can't detect the sonar pulses at the frequencies used by the electronics.

[RangerJack]

had the same thing happen on Lake Osakis with a huge catfish...was pushing my transducer up the hole

[curtistodd]

I believe they can! Every Large Walleye and Every Large Crappie we caught in 30 trips to different lakes throughout MN, ND, and SD, were caught on holes that did not have a transducer in them.

My buddy pointed this out me in late April. I didnt seem to have much effect on my gill fishing.

[RiverFish]

I don't believe that fish can sense electronics. I've talked with tech guys at two of the big, well known companies that make fish finders, and they say both companies have done extensive testing that proves the fish can't sense the electronics. Same concept as how dogs can hear higher pitched sounds than humans can hear, or how we can't detect radio waves, etc ..... fish can't detect the sonar pulses at the frequencies used by the electronics.

It would be interesting to see the scientific research on this. Any independent scientific research on this?

[usmcjsy]

Ya a couple tech guys working for any fishing electronics company is going to disagree with the ability of a fish to sense their elctronics. Why would they wanna admit to that. The sales of their electronics is what they depend upon for a living. Sometimes the electronics are cool but sometimes I think it gets to the point where it takes a lot out of the sport. I remember as a kid going out with my dad we did not have any electronics and we caught a lot of nice fish. More so than I do today most times with the gadgetry. Most the time I leave it at home. The only thing I bring out is the GPS when looking for new spots.

[RiverFish]

Several types of fish can detect ultrasound. In the order Clupeiformes, members of the subfamily Alosinae (shad), have been shown to be able to detect sounds up to 180 kHz, while the other subfamilies (herring) can hear only up to 4 kHz.

From Wikipedia

[RiverFish]

Not scientific but interesting article:

http://www.chesapeake-angler.com/storysept07-fishcanhear.htm

[thatoneguy]

Given the number of walleyes whose heads i've banged off my ducer coming up the hole, it sure doesn't seem to bother them when I fish.

[bak2MN]

They dont like all the electronics now just like I dont cause of all the cell phones down the holes! They never quit ringing!