Bass: Are They Smart As a Whip, Or Dumb As a Rock?

From my research, it appears the jury is still out when it comes to answering this question. Individual opinions are all over the place--even among the experts. You might say it's like bellybuttons--everybody has one. Here's a synopsis of what I found during my research:

Professional fisheries biologist and lake-management consultant Bob Lusk (left), with a home base in north Texas, described bass as "intriguing creatures," but added, "I don't believe for a minute a bass has the ability to think. I completely believe they respond to genetic instincts and conditioning. That's it. I believe bass respond or react to stimuli conditioned by repetition."

This same biologist pointed out that if you ask any good fisherman what it takes for a bass to bite, "most will tell you the same things. The fish is hungry or angry...or both. If you can't make it bite from hunger, make it mad by throwing something noisy in its house. A bass will protect its habitat from intruders.

"Research has proven a bass has 'memory,' which lasts no longer than 15 minutes. But repetitive behaviors condition fish. That's why they become 'hook smart.' It's also why they 'learn' to come to fish food. Conditioning...nothing more, nothing less. Take away fish food, fish still come where they are conditioned. They don't think about it at all.

"Like half the human population, fish want three things: food, sex and survival," the biologist opined.

That philosophy, however, wasn't shared by the late Dr. Loren G. Hill (right), longtime fishery academic and bass angler, who was best known for inventing the Color-C-Lector. He acknowledged that "some people think that a fish can't remember--that it relies only on instinct...and forgets things in a matter of minutes. But that's not true. Our studies (in the zoology department for the University of Oklahoma) show that fish do have a memory.

"For example, if a bass is caught on a spinnerbait one day, it's almost impossible to catch that fish on the same lure the next day. And if it is exposed to that bait every couple days for a week or so, it could be 20 days before it will strike the lure again.

"It's the same way for the fish's buddies that observed that fish being caught, too," Dr. Hill believed. "When they see the lure come past, they are going to remember, and they are going to avoid it. The same holds true for lakes that are exposed to heavy fishing pressure. The more lures the fish see, the more conditioned they become and the harder they are to fool.

"There is a certain amount of validity to it when fishermen talk about educated fish," Hill said. "When you go to a virgin lake, you can catch fish on just about anything you throw. But once the fish have been exposed to lures day after day, they remember and become warier."

Dr. Hill noted, however, that there is at least one lure that fish apparently don't remember--the plastic worm.

"You can catch a bass on a plastic worm one day, and he still will come back and hit it the next day," he said. "For some reason, the worm doesn't stimulate the same memory response that other lures do.

"How long a fish's memory lasts depends on two factors: the degree of reinforcement and the diagnostic characteristics of the event (the danger or the success involved). For example, some fish remember the things it associates with danger--the sting of a hook, a boat rushing into its environment, the sight of a fisherman, or the sounds of thunder. And it will continue to remember, as long as it receives reinforcement or regular exposure to the factors.

"Not all fish have the same ability to remember, though," noted Dr. Hill. "Species such as northern pike and bluegill are known as poor learners and often will strike again only minutes after being caught and released. Other fish, such as largemouth bass, channel catfish, stripers, and carp, have better memories."

The secret to anglers' continued success, concluded Hill, "is to be willing to use different kinds of lures so that the fish don't get too familiar with what we are throwing."

The last philosophy I want to include here is that of the late Dallas Morning News outdoors writer Ray Sasser (right), who lauded catch-and-release fishing as a wonderful conservation tool. However, he also believed there was a downside to catch-and-release: "The fish may learn to avoid a lure that tricked them."

According to Sasser, "That explains why the fishing can be slow on reservoirs like Lake Fork, where we know from regular Texas Parks and Wildlife Department sampling that the bass population remains high. It also explains why new fishing lures are effective until the fish have seen them and been fooled by them, often multiple times. Now there's scientific evidence that largemouth bass not only learn to avoid lures, they're more likely to avoid loud, vibrating lures than lures that require a subtle presentation."

He cited a University of Florida study that addressed the issue of lure avoidance. Graduate students did the research at a private, 27-acre lake over the course of four weeks (12 fishing days).

The study lake historically had received little fishing pressure from the owners. It was shallow (maximum depth 15 feet), and the water was clear. Two anglers did all the fishing and were restricted to using just two lures: a chrome and black Rat-L-Trap lipless crankbait and a 4-inch soft stickbait (a Yamamoto Senko in plum with emerald flake), fished weightless with a 3/0 worm hook. Researchers first used an electro-shocking boat to capture, mark and release adult bass and estimated that the lake contained 347 total bass more than 10 inches long. Both lures always were rigged the same. The anglers used 20-pound-test braided line with 4 feet of 20-pound fluorocarbon leader. To negate possible skill difference between the two anglers, they swapped lures every hour.

Each fish caught was tagged with a unique electronic marker, so it could be identified upon recapture. After 12 fishing days, 260 fish had been caught. That represented about 75 percent of the estimated total population. The catch rate dropped from 2.5 fish per angler hour when the experiment began to .25 fish per angler hour after 12 fishing days. After three days of fishing, catch rates for the Rat-L-Trap had fallen from 2.5 fish per angler hour to .5 fish per hour. Catch rates for the soft stickbait declined from 1.8 fish per hour at the beginning of the experiment to 1 fish per lhour at the end of 12 fishing days. The Rat-L-Trap had the lowest incidence of recapture. Only two bass were fooled twice by the lipless crankbait. The soft, weightless worm recorded 25 recaptures. Five of the fish were tricked more than twice by the worm.

Researchers deduced that while the loud, flashy crankbait recorded higher catch rates when the fishing began, the same flash and vibrations that first attracted bass were easier for fish to identify and avoid a second time. With a much slower, more subtle presentation, the bass had a harder time distinguishing the worm as a temptation best avoided.

Said Sasser, "Experienced anglers could have predicted these results. That's why we keep searching tackle shops for a better, or at least different, fishing lure. It's also why we can revert to an old favorite from time to time. Bass, after all, don't live that long. The fish we're casting to today likely never have seen lures or colors that were popular 10 years ago.

"There also are days when the fish won't bite anything. Thankfully, however, there are days when they seem to bite everything."