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Posts: 97
Location: Pickering, ON | Muskies are stupid. After all, they are just fish and their brains are tiny. Giving them too much credit will result in one thing - they'll beat you everytime (in truth, it will be you beating yourself).
That being said, they can become conditioned. I think it is open for debate as to how long it takes them to "forget" or become "deconditioned". Where heavily pressured (i.e. they see the same stuff a few times a week), conditioning will become stronger and it will take longer (possibly over winter) for them to dumb up again. 100 double 10s buzzing overhead on weekends and 30-40 during weekdays will generate a pretty strong conditioning.
Where not heavily pressured, I would submit that you could potentially fool the same stupid fish with the exact same thing every week, or every couple of weeks at most. Two or three double 10s going by once a week isn't likely to generate conditioning negative to fishing.
As I see it there are 2 smart solutions:
1. Fish less pressured water; the obvious but maybe not always easy option.
2. Fish for the fish other people aren't fishing for. Along with the ability to trigger follows, this is the thing I see which separates the best Musky fisherfolk from the pack. They get out and find their own spots, secondary spots, etc.; the spots on which there are fish (and usually bigger ones) that aren't conditioned.
Edited by JeffinPickering 1/19/2010 9:22 AM
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Posts: 829
Location: Maple Grove, MN | I agree with 1 and 2, but I think there are a few more.
3. Use a different presentation. Could be a different lure, different sized lure, or a similar lure presented differently than what the typical lures are. Sometimes just dressing up a lure with a little twister tail can make all the difference.
4. Fish at different times when there are typically few fishermen on the water. This could be very early before sunrise, in the middle of the night, or even in the middle of the day.
I have had several multiple fish outings the last few years when I didn't get on the water until close to noon. On more than one outing like that, other boats were pulling off and said they had little action. I noticed the lures on their rods, went to something else, and then had good luck. Why? Maybe because I had a different presentation. And maybe because the fish were conditioned to being more cautious early in the day when there were typically more fishermen and not so cautious in the afternoon when there were typically far fewer fishermen.
I have fished heavily pressured waters for many years and have learned a few things. The one thing that has been consistent is if one does what everyone else is doing, one will usually have the same success rate as everyone else. And that usually is not so great. |
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Posts: 83
| I'd say, after many years of diving with them, that Muskie and smallmouth bass have a little more going on than many other fish. Now, I can't bring myself to say that any fish that tries to eat painted chunks of plastic and metal is smart, however!
I've seen some things that lead me to believe there is a bit of a thought process. I've just seen a little more than I can attribute to instinct. there is certainly some degree of memory as well.
A little songbird doesn't have much of a brain. When I let my cat out, they take flight. They learn to avoid food that sickens them. They build nests. They are clever enough to realize they have an edge against a deadly enemy in the hawk, and use their in flight manuverability in ariel combat to drive their foe away. Give a musky at least this much credit.
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Posts: 32922
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | That's the result, mostly, of evolution. |
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