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| I think it depends on the "fish". I have been in 4 feet of water on the Canadian shield---crystal clear water and had four footers "nipping" at the blades on my trolling motor at slow speeds. Crazy as it sounds----it has happened more than once. I even had a 50" plus fish follow my stainless prop at idle speed-----who said double 10's are big blades? -----John |
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Posts: 2687
Location: Hayward, WI | Mikes Extreme - 2/6/2013 8:41 AM
On lakes where you don't have to get in line to fish a spot I dont believe the electric motor has that much of a negative effect on muskies and other fish.
Bottom line is: If you fish water that is getting pounded every day and night you should keep in mind some stealth when figuring out a game plan working your areas. Never sacrifice boat positioning where needed to be completely stealthy but always consider the quietest option. For me, that's slip drifting instead of going into the wind with my trolling motor on high speed.
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There could be something to that. I fish NW WI waters primarily and might see a few musky fishermen while I'm out but I don't believe I have anywhere near the fishing pressure that several MN lakes do.
Do trolling motors spook more heavily pressured fish? Possible I suppose. That would probably be a question of can fish become conditioned and associate a familiar noise with a bad experience? If that's the case it would seem like Cowgirls, Bulldawgs, and Pacemakers wouldn't still work as well as they do across the musky range.
I may have talked myself in a circle and left without an answer. However, I guess I don't have an answer. Though the study is interesting, I'd still have to put my money on the trolling motor not making much difference in most situations. For the number of fish I've caught (muskies, walleyes, pike, panfish, etc) within just a few feet of the trolling motor it doesn't seem to hurt much.
For the study do you know how far away the radio transmitter can detect a fish, and how far away from the fish the trolling motor was dropped? Was he trying to approach the fish at a speed typical to what we'd move at while fishing? How close could he get?
We'll probably never really know the answer until more radio tracking studies are done. And if fish are turned off from the trolling motor some days we'll really never know.
Edited by curleytail 2/6/2013 10:54 AM
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| how can you explain baits in the propwash w/ 3 ft of line out getting hit???? |
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| I learned last year that fish are keenly aware of my trolling motor and avoid it at all costs. I think I am going to try a new trolling motor this year so the fish can't recognize the sound of my boat from last season. |
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Location: Grand Rapids, MI | Steve Worrall - Do you have any audio recordings of electric motors? Do you have any of the pinging from a graph? Just my opinion but having listened to both with a hydrophone, if I wanted to be stealthy I would first shut off my transducers. |
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| One summer day we were anchored off the mouth of a 20' wide coldwater stream where it entered into a warmer river. There was a downed tree 30' up in the creek and on my 3rd cast I was hung on a deep limb. After a few more casts we pulled anchor and used the trolling motor to retrieve my lure. We anchored back in the same place and on the very next cast I caught a 36 incher right where we had just motored. The stream was only 4' deep. That fish did not pay any attention to us at all. Each fish and each situation is different and you never know what will happen. |
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| Steve,
Would also love to know if you have any audio information. |
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Posts: 2691
Location: Pewaukee, Wisconsin | Prop wash hits are kicker motor trolling. Not electric trolling motor noise. I have caught lots of fish trolling with my 9.9 pro kicker. Lots with very short lines. A lot of these fish I see hit the lures as they are trolled over tall weeds.
My question was mainly on the electric trolling motors.
I have spent 35 plus years on the water and come to the conclusion that electric trolling motors have a negative effect on muskies and gas powered motors actually don't bother the muskies as much. Actually I believe muskies use the disturbance to feed on bait fish moving away from the prop wash. My hottest trolling rod is almost always the rod closest to my kicker motor. Now this is on Pewaukee lake.
I can't count all the times I have had muskies moving away from my boat as I have shined at night. By the time I get the light on them they are already moving away. Carp, gar, bass, gills, etc always seem to just hang out. Muskies are just spooked by my electrics to some degree. I don't want to bring brand names of electric trolling motors into this. I have used all of them and run the quietest one to my knowledge.
I'm just curious as to what everyone's opinion is on this issue.
Gas motors are everywhere and I think the fish are used to them. Does electric motors have negative effect because of conditioning?
Can muskies become conditioned through bad experiences? |
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Posts: 767
Location: Ames, Iowa | I think on busy lakes at busy spots fish get conditioned to hearing larger boat motors. I'm not sure about electric trolling motors however. i'm concerned about them going on and off while I fish shallow water. I believe in stealth now more than ever and feel like I do my best fishing when I do the best job of boat control. I know that I try my best to read the wind before going out and thus know where I have to put the boat relative to structure to get the best and longest drift without using either motor to make adjustments. It's probably the #1 thing I think about before leaving the harbor or access. |
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Location: Grand Rapids, MI | I'm feeling you Mike but have some reservations on sound or feel from a TM having any negative impact on muskies, at least any more than a 14-20' boat would. The reason I believe this is that the lake would have to be a a muskie only lake with no other fishermen on the water. If this was the reality then I could see them associating the TM sound, or feel, with a negative experience. With enough reinforcement they could be conditioned, however, I don't think this could happen in most places. There are so many other boats on the water with TMs, some are on constant some are used in bursts. I would guess (no data of course) that muskies have more positive or neutral experiences with TMs around than they do without and certainly more positive than negative.
As far as spotlights, muskies really don't like them compared to other fish and they react similar to walleye in my experience.
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