04 March 2013


How Striped Bass Locate Prey

Every wonder how Striped Bass locate prey? You probably have, and like most people you probably think they see it first. There is a very good chance you are wrong, depending on the water clarity, depth, moon phase, water turbidity, and ambient light conditions. Bass might not use sight at all in deep, dark or turbid water. 
Tackle manufacturers make fishing lures attractive to catch their prey -- you. A lot of lure design is done with the consumer in mind because humans use sight as their primary sense organ. Striped bass do not. In order of importance, bass use sound and vibration first (which is really the same thing, just a different frequency waveform), smell, and then sight. They are nearsighted to boot. So what a lure “looks like” might not be as important as you think. You on the other hand, if you are able bodied, use sight first, sound, i.e. hearing, second, and then your other senses. 
Fish are always is water, not air, and there is a huge difference between the way air and water transmit sound and vibration, odors, and light. If you took high school chemistry you probably remember that water is a very unique molecule. There is a reason you are 90% water and most of the earth surface is  water........but more of that later. For now just remember that water makes sound behave very differently than air.  
Striped bass are very unique animals and use their lateral lines and ears as their primary sense organ to “navigate” their environment (water) and locate dinner. Stripers are also called Linesiders. Those lateral lines are not just decorations. They are actually a mesh of acoustic sensors that terminate in the fishes ear and transmit “vibration/sound” to the fishes brain. They work the same way nuclear submarines locates enemy submarines underwater. Submarines use “arrays” of hydra-phones towed behind the sub and/or an acoustical sensor array in the bow. Bass use their lateral lines. God gave bass their own acoustical arrays and built in digital signal processing computer; their brain. They use it in much the same way as any USS Virginia-class  fast attack submarine uses hers.
So you might be getting bored by now with the technical stuff. The bottom line is, if your lure does not generate sound or vibrate you are not optimizing your odds to catch striped bass. Tune in tomorrow for more.....................

1 comment:

Deb Laflamme said...

Great post Capt. Steve. Love learning from you.