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Old 08-14-09, 01:28 PM   #1
Abbeysdad
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Default Are fish sensitive to depth/fish finder?

I've been out 5 times now in my 'new'/used boat I just got in mid June and with the exception of one small perch, I've been skunked - no bites even.
I've always had the depth/fish finder on and have 'seen' fish, but nothing touches my bait (worms, minnows, crabs).

Maybe just wrong place, wrong time, and/or maybe a dumb question, but was wondering about sonar echos and if it may spook fish?
(I kinda like leaving it on especially moving in closer to shore with a 3' draft - then again I'm just a drift or slow moving with the TM, so I could turn it off.)
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Old 08-14-09, 02:03 PM   #2
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Depends I think, In shallow water pithcing and flipping or fishing close to the boat ill turn mine off. Deeper water or fishing long casts Ill leave it on. Cant really say for sure either way but it does raise my confidence to turn it off when fishing close to the boat.
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Old 08-14-09, 02:19 PM   #3
nofearengineer
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I'll put it this way. The range of human hearing is from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. As we get older the band gets narrower, but we're born with 20/20 hearing. The reason we are sensitive to such a high frequency is because we live in air, which is not dense. High frequency sound tends to travel farther in non-dense material. Water, being much, much denser than air, carries low frequency sounds much better than high frequencies. Therefore, one could assume (I don't know for certain) that fish, having evolved in water, have better low-frequency hearing than high-frequency.

One can then reason that since your average 200 kHz fishfinder broadcasts at a frequency about 3.5 octaves above the highest frequency a human can hear, then bass can not hear it either. Even a 50 kHz transducer is over an octave higher than a human. And when you consider the miniscule power behind the signal, it becomes even less likely. Sensors may say 600 W (2400 W peak to peak), and that sound like a lot, but it's only for a microsecond or two. If you experienced a normally human audible sound at 2400 W, but only in microsecond pulses, you would never hear it.

Long story short, I don't believe bass can hear fish finders.
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Old 08-14-09, 02:29 PM   #4
cassidyta
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I will by no means attempt to debate an engineer, but while they may not "hear" the actual sound waves, I believe that they can feel them. I have observed two different behaviors amongst fish in clear waters.
In places that see a lot of fishing pressure, I have noticed that the fish do not overly react to the constant barage of sonar type waves. I do not think they they do not feel it, but I believe that in these locations, the sonar is part of their normal environment.
In areas that are less pressured, I notice that he fish do appear more skittish when I have the sonar on.
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Old 08-14-09, 04:20 PM   #5
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I've read several times that the pinging will spook bass and it's best to turn it off once you have reached your destination. Not only will the pinging spook, but one source said a trolling motor will also spook fish, especially when turning on and off in short spurts, but also mentioned that a constantly running motor at a slow speed doesn't bother them as much as the intermittant on and off motor activity. Hope this helps....Mac

I sometimes run mine to mark the baitfish, then go upwind and drift the areas with it off.
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Old 08-14-09, 04:49 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mac2 View Post
I've read several times that the pinging will spook bass and it's best to turn it off once you have reached your destination. Not only will the pinging spook, but one source said a trolling motor will also spook fish, especially when turning on and off in short spurts, but also mentioned that a constantly running motor at a slow speed doesn't bother them as much as the intermittant on and off motor activity. Hope this helps....Mac

I sometimes run mine to mark the baitfish, then go upwind and drift the areas with it off.
Mac raises a good point here. While imho, bass can not hear a fish finder, they can absolutely hear a trolling motor. You would be hard-pressed to design a better low-frequency noise-maker than a trolling motor prop. While not "noisy" to us, it is creating continuous 20-60 Hz signals, which any fish knows is not natural.

I think this may account for the belief that bass can hear fish finders...one usually doesn't encounter a fish finder without an electric trolling motor.

Frankly, there might be something to be said for old fashioned rowboats and oars. While certainly more noisy to human ears than electric trollers, the noises from paddling are more erratic, and might seem more natural, and less threatening to bass.

And Cassidy, I like debate. Please don't take anything I say as gospel. I may have a lot of scientific knowledge, but I make lots of mistakes, and still have the tendency to jump to conclusions too fast (I'm working on getting rid of that habit).

***EDIT***

I did a little research here.

http://www.ariamarine.com/Fish_%20he...sh_hearing.htm

A guy did a study, and found that only a few fish are capable of hearing up to 4 kHz. Most are limited to around 600 Hz, or 0.6 kHz. This would seem to agree with my theories. I now feel confident in my belief that fish are spooked by trolling motor props, not fish finders.
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Last edited by nofearengineer; 08-14-09 at 05:54 PM.
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Old 08-14-09, 06:54 PM   #7
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Again, I am not aruguin the point of "hearing". However, the audio waves to disrupt the water and with a linear line, I think it is still quite possible that it does affect the fish.
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Old 08-15-09, 07:16 PM   #8
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I don't even attempt to understand why, but, I do know that crappie have moved when I've turned on the depth finder. I fished a couple of lakes, in Michigan, often enough that I knew where the crappie schooled. I did not use the depth finder to go and catch a mess of fish. One time, out of curioisity, I turned the depth finder on to see the school I was fishing. I saw them and then they were gone and even though I turned the finder off I did not catch another fish. Did that a couple of times, just to see if that had really happened, with the same results. Now, if I find a place they are biting, I turn the finder off and have better results.
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