04-06-2003, 07:05 PM
[cool]Hey, Predator, just for the record, I am offering only my own observations and opinions. As we all know, there are few "absolutes" in fishing...or anything else. For everything we can find to get on a soapbox about, there well be someone else with a dissenting opinion.
I have conducted ongoing reading and research on the issue of sounds, and their effects on fish...positive and negative. The one thing I have read in several places, that makes sense to me, is that most fish respond to low frequency sounds more positively than high frequency. Anyone basically familiar with the physics of sound understands that low frequency means bigger sound waves and lower pitch. High pitched (high frequency) sound can affect fish just like some of today's music (noise) affects people of the older generations (like me). It is unnatural to them and they get nervous and boogie. One explanation is that the tail beats of fleeing bait fish make a very low frequency vibration, stimulating to predators (no pun intended), whereas higher pitch can trigger a flight response, from unknown potential dangers. Fish don't know from Britney or the Dixie Chicks.
On the issue of the above water vs below water, the difference is in how your sound system is attached to the boat. If speakers are connected to the superstructure, which is connected to the hull, the vibrations will travel through the solid parts of the boat's frame, through the hull and be broadcast with great clarity into the surrounding water. As I mentioned, I have heard music while submerged and it is almost as if there are underwater speakers on some boats.
It is well known and documented that many species of fish are indeed attracted to the prop wash...especially at certain rpms. This may be a factor of the simulated tail vibrations of prey species. Who knows? Almost anyone who has trolled in the open ocean...for a variety of tunas and/or billfish...has stories of days when the best place to put the lures or baits was right behind the boat.
I have heard more than a few of the pro bass boys propose the same theory...that music is not a good bass attractant. And I once saw a guide on a salmon drift boat, on the Smith River, in California, actually throw a client's "boom box" into the river after being blasted with sudden blaring music..
All that being said, I enjoy a wide variety of music myself, and would enjoy being able to fish and listen at the same time. The fact that I wait until I am headed home to turn up the tunes is a result of practicing what I preach. Or maybe it's because I can't get good speakers for my tube.
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I have conducted ongoing reading and research on the issue of sounds, and their effects on fish...positive and negative. The one thing I have read in several places, that makes sense to me, is that most fish respond to low frequency sounds more positively than high frequency. Anyone basically familiar with the physics of sound understands that low frequency means bigger sound waves and lower pitch. High pitched (high frequency) sound can affect fish just like some of today's music (noise) affects people of the older generations (like me). It is unnatural to them and they get nervous and boogie. One explanation is that the tail beats of fleeing bait fish make a very low frequency vibration, stimulating to predators (no pun intended), whereas higher pitch can trigger a flight response, from unknown potential dangers. Fish don't know from Britney or the Dixie Chicks.
On the issue of the above water vs below water, the difference is in how your sound system is attached to the boat. If speakers are connected to the superstructure, which is connected to the hull, the vibrations will travel through the solid parts of the boat's frame, through the hull and be broadcast with great clarity into the surrounding water. As I mentioned, I have heard music while submerged and it is almost as if there are underwater speakers on some boats.
It is well known and documented that many species of fish are indeed attracted to the prop wash...especially at certain rpms. This may be a factor of the simulated tail vibrations of prey species. Who knows? Almost anyone who has trolled in the open ocean...for a variety of tunas and/or billfish...has stories of days when the best place to put the lures or baits was right behind the boat.
I have heard more than a few of the pro bass boys propose the same theory...that music is not a good bass attractant. And I once saw a guide on a salmon drift boat, on the Smith River, in California, actually throw a client's "boom box" into the river after being blasted with sudden blaring music..
All that being said, I enjoy a wide variety of music myself, and would enjoy being able to fish and listen at the same time. The fact that I wait until I am headed home to turn up the tunes is a result of practicing what I preach. Or maybe it's because I can't get good speakers for my tube.
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