Boat noise

[jeffro9023]

Yes or no...Boat noise spooks fish in 30' of water. My buddy says we aint catching fish because of motor noise ( I have a 3 year old 25hp Yamaha 4 stroke)...I says nah, we just aint catching fish. Then he says guys run planer boards to get away from motor noise. I says nah, guys run planers to cover more water. Lets see if we can get this straightened out.

[fishlessman]

one of the best places to catch salmon is 15 feet behind the trolling motor in the propwash

[Jethro]

I boated 16 salmon this past weekend with my 20 year old, 2 stroke 25 horse loudmouth chugging along. No planer boards were used.

[Mac Attack]

Yes or no...Boat noise spooks fish in 30' of water. My buddy says we aint catching fish because of motor noise ( I have a 3 year old 25hp Yamaha 4 stroke)...I says nah, we just aint catching fish. Then he says guys run planer boards to get away from motor noise. I says nah, guys run planers to cover more water. Lets see if we can get this straightened out.

I'm assuming you're speaking about eyes and not salmonids.

Anything will spook an eye.
But then I've seen them 3-4 feet below me when I motored by and they weren't spooked.
Go figure.

I play the radio.
But I don't care if we limit out.
I like music.

Not only will noise scatter eyes, so with the boat.
So planners are a good idea.

Some of my best days catching eyes we didn't mark any.
But we were marking bait.
 

[mcully]

Jigged up eyes in 6-12 feet of water yesterday with country music playing loud enough to hear at the bow.

[royjulius]

I catch plenty of fish with all my gear in play. Its amazing how after a tourney when every one is b-s-ing about their day how many theories get thrown out there. Oh the turtles ate all the bass eggs, there's too many pike and they're eating the bass, the state musta took em all outta here, the d**n cormorants are eating all the fish, etc.

The only noise I know for sure scares fish are sudden noises like some newb on the boat slamming deck lids. That usually generates some feedback from the bow. 

[ADK Fishunter]

I catch plenty of walleye with my tunes cranked up loud enough to hear all the way across the lake.

[jeffro9023]

SEE? Thats what im saying!!!

[panfishman13]

fish don't hear "noise" the same way we do as they don't have an actual ear. what they do have is a lateral line that picks up vibrations that travel through the water.

so yes, fish can "hear" any and all noise you make in the boat, at least from a certain distance (i don't know how far that is, but i'm sure it depends upon species)
that said, they usually don't care.

going from the teachings of In-Fisherman, fish have 3 basic moods: positive, negative, and neutral. positive means they'll willing take a bait, negative means they absolutely won't, neutral means they can be convinced to go either way.

so i think it's safe to assume that if fish are in a positive mood, they won't be bothered by your boat noise, music, etc. it may even attract fish to investigate the source of the commotion. if they're in a negative mood, they're not gonna bite at all, and boat noise won't change that. if they're in a neutral mood, it gets a bit more grey...

sudden loud noises could easily spook fish, but constant quiet to medium noise doesn't seem to affect most fish while they're in a neutral mood.

if you have a really loud motor, i'd get it fixed to be quieter. if not, i think you're fine.

[hunts2long]

Fish hear boat noise all summer long. If it bothered them that much, you would never catch a fish on a weekend. I believe they get use to it. That being said, I have seen the bite shut down after using the kicker to stay above a school of walleyes. Not sure if they shut down due to boat noise or picking fish out of the school. I do know if you leave and come back in awhile you can get a few more off that spot....h2l

[wile.e.1]

the eyes always seem to hit on my boat when Led Zeppelin is playin

[youp50]

I have watched salmon and lake trout swim under my boat while trolling.  Maybe 12 to 15 FOW.  Looked like they were just cruising to me.

I have seen schools of salmon inside of break walls, 6-8 FOW, they were spooked by the boat.

I can't see bottom in 30 FOW.  I doubt they are spookier than at 15 feet.

Both of my Grandfathers gave me grief for banging in the boat.  I would expect a portable radio would have become the start of a new reef if either were Captain.

[UFCreel]

Around here we troll cranks in our prop wash about 15 feet back. In 6' of water. They still end up in the grease. Noise? Not that big of a factor.

[Ice Dawg]

We catch eyes in 7 to 15 feet all the time using an outboard. More boats fishing the same area the same way has a tendancy to make eyes spooky. Probably why we do a lot of drifting here when lots of boats  are in a fairly small area.

[jeffro9023]

Trolled Friday night and got 4 eyes... 5.5-7fow. Lures were a cast and 2 pulls of line behind the boat, so maybe 120' ( 40yds) ish.