#2 makes a really good point, B2R
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Three Things I Don't Know About Fishing
by: Lloyd Tackitt , Texas 3/9/2014
Every year I learn more about fishing, and forget some too. But also every year there are three major mysteries about fishing that remain mysteries to me. I guess these particular mysteries always will remain mysteries, at least for me.
I'll start by throwing out the big word - anthropomorphism. Webster defines it: an interpretation of what is not human or personal in terms of human or personal characteristics :
Another way of saying it is that we humans tend to falsely find or attribute human tendencies to fish behavior. And to other things also (like cars), but in this case we'll stick to fish. The reason I bring this up is because we sometimes do this in order to provide a motive for what otherwise seems inexplicable behavior of fish, and it's a false way of explaining. Number one mystery will provide an example.
1. Why do fish strike lures that neither look anything like a natural part of their ecosystem, or acts like a natural part of their ecosystem. For instance bass will often hit a large fluorescent yellow spinner bait that is being pulled through the water at hyper-speed. They will, and they'll do it often enough that these spinner baits are some of the all time best fish catchers. But why? What in the world does a bass think that thing is? It looks absolutely nothing like anything the bass normally feeds on, or even like anything that ever co-existed with bass in a pond, river, or lake - at any time in the history of the earth. And that buzzing flashing speed demon is ripping through the water at such a fast rate that it bulges the water up in front of it. Why would a bass attack that instead of running away from it? And I'm not just talking about spawning bass protecting their beds. One of the answers I frequently see being propounded is that the buzz bait or spinner bait makes the bass angry. That is anthropomorphisizing. We assume it makes them angry because it sort of makes sense out of the mystery. But do fish get angry? If they get angry is it an anger that is anything like human anger? To me this remains a mystery and I don't believe that saying these types of weird-ass lures makes fish angry solves the mystery. So why do fish try to eat things that to us would look like a weird alien space being suddenly showing up at the front door? If some truly bizarrely acting thing showed up at my front door, well eating it would not be high on my list of potentially useful reactions. By the way, my questioning a fish's motives for attacking something weird is also anthropomorphisizing the fish's behavior. Just can't win with that one.
2. Why do fish change their feeding behavior before, during, and after a storm front? Most folks say it's the barometric pressure change. I don't buy that. Even in shallow water a fish can move up or down about an inch and make up all the difference in the barometric pressure change that happens in a typical storm. In a hurricane the fish might have to move up or down four inches. Fish move up and down this much all the time, so why would a tiny change in air pressure affect them? I'm more of the opinion that we should be looking at magnetic changes, but there is a definite lack of scientific studies where fish and magnetism and weather are concerned. We have learned that all fish contain magnetite in their bodies and that many fish use the earth's magnetic fields for navigation. But we don't know much more than that.
3. If hunger was the only motivation for fish taking a bait, either artificial or natural, then fishing would be pretty simple. But I've seen many instances where fish that should have been hungry ignored perfectly presented bait. Where at least some of the fish should have been hungry just on the law of averages and all of the fish ignored the bait. Swam right by the bait, even nudged it out of the way. I bet you've seen it too. So if it isn't just hunger that causes them to feed, what else is involved?
There are other mysteries, but these are the main three that I think about. What's yours?
FishExplorer.com Blogs
Three Things I Don't Know About Fishing
by: Lloyd Tackitt , Texas 3/9/2014
I'll start by throwing out the big word - anthropomorphism. Webster defines it: an interpretation of what is not human or personal in terms of human or personal characteristics :
Another way of saying it is that we humans tend to falsely find or attribute human tendencies to fish behavior. And to other things also (like cars), but in this case we'll stick to fish. The reason I bring this up is because we sometimes do this in order to provide a motive for what otherwise seems inexplicable behavior of fish, and it's a false way of explaining. Number one mystery will provide an example.
1. Why do fish strike lures that neither look anything like a natural part of their ecosystem, or acts like a natural part of their ecosystem. For instance bass will often hit a large fluorescent yellow spinner bait that is being pulled through the water at hyper-speed. They will, and they'll do it often enough that these spinner baits are some of the all time best fish catchers. But why? What in the world does a bass think that thing is? It looks absolutely nothing like anything the bass normally feeds on, or even like anything that ever co-existed with bass in a pond, river, or lake - at any time in the history of the earth. And that buzzing flashing speed demon is ripping through the water at such a fast rate that it bulges the water up in front of it. Why would a bass attack that instead of running away from it? And I'm not just talking about spawning bass protecting their beds. One of the answers I frequently see being propounded is that the buzz bait or spinner bait makes the bass angry. That is anthropomorphisizing. We assume it makes them angry because it sort of makes sense out of the mystery. But do fish get angry? If they get angry is it an anger that is anything like human anger? To me this remains a mystery and I don't believe that saying these types of weird-ass lures makes fish angry solves the mystery. So why do fish try to eat things that to us would look like a weird alien space being suddenly showing up at the front door? If some truly bizarrely acting thing showed up at my front door, well eating it would not be high on my list of potentially useful reactions. By the way, my questioning a fish's motives for attacking something weird is also anthropomorphisizing the fish's behavior. Just can't win with that one.
2. Why do fish change their feeding behavior before, during, and after a storm front? Most folks say it's the barometric pressure change. I don't buy that. Even in shallow water a fish can move up or down about an inch and make up all the difference in the barometric pressure change that happens in a typical storm. In a hurricane the fish might have to move up or down four inches. Fish move up and down this much all the time, so why would a tiny change in air pressure affect them? I'm more of the opinion that we should be looking at magnetic changes, but there is a definite lack of scientific studies where fish and magnetism and weather are concerned. We have learned that all fish contain magnetite in their bodies and that many fish use the earth's magnetic fields for navigation. But we don't know much more than that.
3. If hunger was the only motivation for fish taking a bait, either artificial or natural, then fishing would be pretty simple. But I've seen many instances where fish that should have been hungry ignored perfectly presented bait. Where at least some of the fish should have been hungry just on the law of averages and all of the fish ignored the bait. Swam right by the bait, even nudged it out of the way. I bet you've seen it too. So if it isn't just hunger that causes them to feed, what else is involved?
There are other mysteries, but these are the main three that I think about. What's yours?