Home Forums Fishing Freshwater I'm convinced fish signal each other.... What say you?

I'm more convinced than ever, that once you start catching fish, they somehow signal others in the area of distress and the bite stops. Countless times I have fished an area and on the first couple of casts caught fish and then it just stops cold. Case in point. Saturday I fished a farm type pond (probably 2-3 acres). In the first 10 casts I caught 5 bass. Now I was standing on a dock casting in several directions so not the same 'hole'. I figured this was going to be a banner day for sure. After that, I kept fishing for the better part of an hour and didn't catch a single fish! Tried several different lures including back to the original all with no affect. Saw a few chasers but nothing would bite again. Obviously predatory fish can sense their prey through a variety of means and I'm convinced some of those abilities translate into defensive measures as well.
Or... maybe the wind just changed direction....

I have to agree with you.I've seen it many times myself.

I don't think the communicate like we think of it but when a fish is hooked it thrashes to get loose. These thrashes will send waves through the water that other fish will pick up with their lateral line and after a while they probably will leave the area because of feeling all the distresed waves. This is also how a pike will come up and eat the bluegill on your line because being a predator he senses these waves and moves towards them looking for an easy meal.

When we pull one or two big cats out of a hole, the bite seems to stop. The only time I will sit on a hole after catching one or two good cats is during nighttime summer fishing, when I'm in a area known to hold a lot of baitfish. The active feeders will be moving about, so it's possible to get more. But if too much time goes by and no fish, time to run-n-gun.

I think if they do, it may vary between species. Case in point - schooling yellow perch through the ice. When you get on them, get your bait in that hole as fast as possible to keep the school under you. As long as you have bait down there, they stick around. Can see it with good flashers and confirmed with cameras.

I have notice this ice fishing,I generaly release everthing I catch.Seems as soon as I let one go back down the hole bite stops cold.
BBJ

Sure catching and releasing will stop a bite....seen it many times. But it will come back again.

have heard that if you make a fish bleed at all it can alarm all the fish in the area something is up and can ruin your fishing

I believe fish, when caught, excrete a Phermone (SP)that alerts other fish to leave the area.

must not be all fish cause over the course of a night i have pulled a dozen fish out of the same spot in the river just rebaiting the hook and tossing it back out to the same spot....

I have this happen while reservoir fishing. Catch two or three in one spot and the bite stops even though I am still marking good numbers of fish in the location. I just row around a bit and set up in another location.

I'm certain that both fish and bait emit hydralic signals by their activity that others pick up in their lateral line sensors but I don't know as I'd say that means they 'signal each other' in any meaningful way.

will also note ive seen the same fish caught twice in about 15 minutes.....a 18 inch northern with a very distinctive bite mark from a larger northern......my wife caught him once when trolling through a hole.....unhooked and tossed him back in, continued on to the end of the point, turned around and backtracked or course and i caught the SOB again on the way back through.....

i have kinda seen it work both ways.