Fish & noise above and below the ice

[opsirc]

As I was laying in bed last night tring to sleep, this thought came to me. They do not come that often so I need to savior them . There has been some discussion about weather or not noise on the ice will scare the fish away. Such as cutting holes, vehicles going by. then we read articles about rattle jigging spoon and lures to attract fish. Are fish really that sensative to different types of noise or does it really make a difference, being spooked by one type and attracted by the other? Do certain noises attract one kind of fish and scare off other fish. You know Eyes perfer country and gators like rock, crappies maybe classical

O

[Kodiak]

fishing out in shanty town on waconia last year watching the fish on the camera, they were not bothered by any noise from what i was watching, i was still catching fish and augers were going and cars driving by.

[Whopper Stopper]

I can tell you this from spending hundreds of hours in a spear house every winter that in water from say ten foot and shallower noise is a factor. Many times the hole is filled with perch or other small fish like bass or small sunfish. often all it takes is someone walking within 20 feet from the house and you will see the fish getting restless. Now something like a chisel or auger added to the mix and it may be awhile before the bait fish return. I have spooked northern when my chair, or floor squeaked when grabbing for the decoy. Now on other days I have had the door open talking to someone and all the while watched baitfish swimming around. I have speared fish with the door open talking to someone. I think in most cases noise will work against you, but then again the fish on given days seem to tolerate it better. I am sure when fishing deeper water noise wouldn't be near as big of a factor, none the less I always do best away from the crowds.

WS

[Gus]

My opinion is very similar to the way deer behave. There are old wise fish, and there are young stupid fish. Of course there is always the exception to any rule. I tend to try and keep as quiet as possible.

[tommyk]

I was able to borrow an Aqua Vu from work the other night. From what I noticed fish do not scare as easily as I imagined. I was only over about 7 feet of water and less than 4" of ice. Just as soon as I made a hole (hand auger) I plopped the camera down and the fish started moving in. This might have been an exception, but I did not have to wait a while for fish to move back in. As for when the ice makes noises, the fish where not bothered either.

-TommyK

[CrappieJohn]

This has been kicked all over the place and I think that at times noise will be a factor and at other times not. Who knows what trips the trigger in this department. But when you mention the jigging spoons like the Rattling Varmint and other similar baits, you are talking about an entirely different level of noise.

Fish, have crude ears capable of hearing loud noises. The traffic and drilling of holes creates this type of noise that fish may acclimate to and simply get used to.

Rattling lures are different. If you shake one of these mentioned lures you will hear the b-talk inside. The amount of noise WE hear is minimal though....it is not like, say, a brass bell that weighs ten pounds and would actually become unheard by us if this rattling were done while we were under water. This subtle sub-sonic "ticking" is transferred into sound waves or vibrations that are picked up by the lateral line of the fish.

Hope this helps to seperate noise from sound...

[Guest]

When I fish on the inner city lakes(no motorized traffic)... I do a lot of fishing in less than 10' and it makes a huge difference when people are walking around, being restless, or even talking(yelling) loud in their ice house, or on the ice. You get a couple people moving around and the fishing is done(at least for the walleyes).

On the other hand, I used to sit tip up out on tonka on a regular basis, and sometimes the northerns would become active when you started to Chisel(earlier ice) a new hole.. suddenly flags would pop that didnt do anything for a couple hours.

On Lake Calhoun(for an example), heavy foot traffic will shut down a bite in 20' fishing for eyes... this is a fact. Tonka(zoo).. I havent noticed much of a difference until the traffic gets too heavy(that warm weekend in Jan that EVERYONE is out).. then it seems to shut down in the shallows.

[BradB]

I think it makes a huge difference on Mille Lacs. Especially early in the ice season when the fishing is good on the gravel. I watch on the camera and just hate it when the guys with the pull-behind fish houses come by as they scatter the fish. It seems they like to circle my house (looking at their GPS no doubt) and the fishing dies for a good hour + after they do this.

It probably depends on the lake, the ice thickness, etc., but it is a definite factor on Mille Lacs I am certain.

[pikerliker]

I went along with a friend and a couple of his buddies from High School a couple of years ago on Red. They were basically up there to drink, talk loudly, and give each other a large ration of, well you know. Oh and if the bobber went down then that was cool. Not my idea of fishing. They irritated me to no end and I think it showed. I wasn't invited along again. Oh darn. We did manage to catch a few fish, but I can't help but think that we would have done better without all the noise and talk!!

~piker

[Walterwontfalter]

I've watched walleyes on my underwater camera spook when a truck drove by about 30 feet away. I was on Mille Lacs in 18 feet of water. The waleyes spooked and swam quickly off most of the time but were right back within minutes and sometimes they just darted around for a couple minutes before settling down. The walleyes I watched were biting slowly most of the day but my buddy and I caught our limits and the vehicle traffic didn't bother us one bit.

[FOOT]

Don't know about the noise but here's a little story that happened at Pritchert's, a backwater of the Mississippi about 30 years ago.

My buddies and I were fishing for crappie and having so-so luck. About 30 feet away a big burly guy was sitting on a bucket jigging for crappie with about as my luck. There were also several guys fishing w/ tipups for northern. The guys fishing for northern were partying and drinking quite a bit. One of the guys jumps in his pickup and drives around the honking his horn.

When he stopped and jumped out of his pickup the big burly guy walks over and says "I wish you wouldn't do that, it scares the crappie". The pickup guys replies "It gets the northern's to bite and we're fishing for northern".

Burly guy just walks back and starts jigging again. About an hour later pickup guy jumps back in his pickup and roars around again. Burly guy walks over just a pickup is stopping. Pickup guys rolls down his window and says "WHAT". That's the last words out of his mouth as Burly guy punches him right in the face and knocks him out. The Burly goes back to jigging.

Pickup guy wakes up about 5 minutes later, stumbles out, pulls out his lines, throws them in the back of the pickup and drives off.

[kjgmh]

A couple of years ago we had clear ice with no snow and I was watching the walleye cruise the shallows with a spotlight. This was clear water less then 6' deep. Some walleye would spook as soon as they saw the light, others I could stand right above them with light on them and stomp on the ice and it never bothered them.