Just how smart you think a bass is about lures???

[Old plug]

Recently I been reading here and there about how smart bass are. Myself I do tend to think they are one of the stupidest of what we got swimming in the ozarks in the ozark. You will see all this stuff about colors action and everything else. Like how easy they see your line etc.  I have caught to many bass repeatedly to think otherwise. I have caught dock bass up to 21 inches on the same artificial bait up to several times. As a matter of fact my son and I both caught one 171/2 inches just last week. on successive days. On the SAME [not same type} plastic worm he caught his on. Nothing very smart there. All that bass really did was follow his instincts and the surrounding factors that made him do it. Time and enviorment. Bass are predators they react. If there is no need they will pay you about as much attention as your family cat. 

 

 

 

 

 

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[fishinwrench]

If you think bass are stupid then you should look at this dog of mine.   I mean, he just ate a push-pin for Christ sake !

"Hey ya idiot, put that down!"

Crunch, Crunch, Gulp.

😒

[slothman]

1 hour ago, fishinwrench said:

If you think bass are stupid then you should look at this dog of mine.   I mean, he just ate a push-pin for Christ sake !

"Hey ya idiot, put that down!"

Crunch, Crunch, Gulp.

😒

The stupid dog I had back in high school would eat literally anything. He would steal candy bars if you put one down. He has eaten axle grease and he had a phase where he ate my dad’s trailer light wires on his truck just about as soon as my dad would replace them. Boy, my dad gave that dog quite the whooping for that and finally cured his desire to eat trailer light wires. Dumb dog. 

[Old plug]

3 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

If you think bass are stupid then you should look at this dog of mine.   I mean, he just ate a push-pin for Christ sake !

"Hey ya idiot, put that down!"

Crunch, Crunch, Gulp.

😒

I am not going to tell him anything much less call him stupid. He would just delight in knocking me out of a chair. He can outright flatten me

[Old plug]

2 hours ago, slothman said:

The stupid dog I had back in high school would eat literally anything. He would steal candy bars if you put one down. He has eaten axle grease and he had a phase where he ate my dad’s trailer light wires on his truck just about as soon as my dad would replace them. Boy, my dad gave that dog quite the whooping for that and finally cured his desire to eat trailer light wires. Dumb dog. 

Well wrench's dog might be slow witted but he is fleet of foot for such big heavy animal. He also does not understand human being are not play toys. Given his druthers he would knock me out of the chair and drag me around the house.

[jdmidwest]

I have seen a trout eat a cigarette butt, marshmellow, corn, and feathers tied on a hook.  That's pretty stupid.

 

[snagged in outlet 3]

26 minutes ago, jdmidwest said:

I have seen a trout eat a cigarette butt, marshmellow, corn, and feathers tied on a hook.  That's pretty stupid.

 

Seen it.  They'll eat a white nike shoe string like a chicken on a tic!

[tjm]

Typically after catching the same bass  three times on almost consecutive casts with the same fly, I'll go to another hole. Maybe they just look the  same...

[Al Agnew]

I suspect there are "smart" bass and dumb bass.  I put "smart" in parentheses because we know they can't reason things out.  But they can learn, it's been proven, and at least some of them can learn to avoid certain lures, or perhaps most lures.  How else do you explain how fisheries with a lot more pressure have bass that are more difficult to catch?  The dumb ones get caught over and over until at some point somebody kills them, while the "smart" ones learn fairly quickly to avoid many lures, and become more difficult to catch.  Perhaps some learn to avoid things that look edible but that have lines running from them.  Perhaps some learn not to eat when they hear a trolling motor that's too close, associating the motor noise with danger.  Or there could be many other negative cues that we anglers give off that the "smart" ones learn to avoid.  Meanwhile the dummies happily keep eating anything that looks edible whenever they feel like it.

 

[TroutRinger]

Idk. The only evidence I can offer is are those 10+ year old smallmouth that survive heavily pressured areas. 

I saw (was unable to catch) an easily 15” smallmouth on sinking creek last weekend in an extremely popular area. I’m certain that fish has had lures in front of it at least two to three days per week all summer for the last decade plus. It gave zero interest in my lures while all the 10” bass were all over them. Not a coincidence.