if you over fish a pond and the fish become hook shy, how long does it take them to forget?

What kind of hook? Spinnerbait, crankbait, jigs????

Interesting question... I'd say no more than a year, but 3 or 4 months may be all it takes?

I'm thinking they would forget about a more subtle bait like a jig faster than a guady lure like a buzzbait.

Agreed - switch up baits and presentation styles often. Nary a fish can resist a delicately presented fluke barely dropping in the water column, or a very lightweight jig/grub.

Depends on the water clarity and how visible you make yourself while angling. My experience with hook shy fish is that they are much more catchable when they have absolutely no clue a human is around. Once a hook shy fish sees a human or boat or whatever they associate with being caught, they will be much more selective to what they eat.

That's a good point Nate... I agree with that assessment 100%. If they don't know a human is there, fish are more apt to bite.

Using lighter line and more natural presentations does make fish less hook shy. Natural sink rates are a big factor in my opinion.

This is a topic that interests me greatly and still presents a lot of confusion in my mind.

I've caught the same fish on the same bait more than once in a single hour. But, I've also been skunked a lot on ponds where we may have been over-fishing them.

I've also wondered about the effect of putting in a boat. In some ponds, I think we catch more from fishing from the bank than we do after we put in a boat. Of course, a lot of those ponds are very hard to fish from the banks due to all the trees and bushes along the shore line that limits your casting.

I try to use techniques taught to me by my avid trout fishing buddies when I fish banks. Walking very softly and changing my positions by moving away from the shoreline and being mindful of where I might be casting (different kind of casting) a shadow on the water. Also, I try to wear some "cammo" kind of clothing but I don't think that helps if the fish can see you and you're moving your arms around.

When the bite is really slow, I'll sometimes switch to live bait fished under a bobber or drop-shot rigged.

Having said all of that, you can refer to my posts about my own pond "issues" elsewhere in this forum. But, I fish a lot of ponds - not just my own.

My "confidence bait" for ponds remains a weightless Senko because I agree that a natural fall rate is generally more effective.

Best of luck to you!

Al there is an article in a recent PB mag issue on catchability.

Several threads here as well.

Try these.

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=58265&fpart=1 Fla LMB catchability


Re: Hook Shy Fish
http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthread...true#Post150533

Re: Largemouth 'catchability' may be inherited
http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthread...true#Post159224


Re: How much fishing is too much?
http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=181009&fpart=1

Seems like I make a pest of myself but the best way to overcome hook shy fish is with a varied fly selection, but Nate's advise is the best advise.

Any conventinal lure can be duplicated with a fly, plus more diverse presentation, leaving the fly in the "strike zone" much longer than with a heavy jug or lure.

Also you don't have to crank the fly in each time as with a casting or spin reel - just pick-up and lay down the fly in a diferent spot.

OK - I be gone now ....

George, you are never making a pest of yourself.

As usual the answer is "It Depends."

Did the aforementioned fish consume any alcoholic beverages before being caught?

Are we talking about male fish or female fish?

And what species of fish, catfish are stupid, they will eat anything and moments later forget that they have eaten anything at all. RES on the other hand eat what ever they want, when ever they want.

English fish will be hungry as long as you serve the bait with tea. German fish require a generous stein of frosty beer to forget hookshyness.

There are just too many parameters to correctly answer your question.

You type well, for a man wearing a sheep costume.

The trick is to cut finger holes in the paws. With finger holes cut in the paws you can get away with all kinds of stuff. I mean after all who would suspect that a sheep drank your beer?

weightless senko...favorite colors? what hook do you favor?

Thanks for taking the time to post the links. I did read all those articles and they helped me to understand that I don't understand what I'm observing.

I have a small pond with some hybrid striped bass and they are currently bird shy. They used to follow me around the pond waiting on food and as they grew more and more would eat food at the surface. But after months of kingfishers the hybrids will only stay on the bottom foot of water (water is crystal clear). And now the herons have just showed up after we got some trout in the other ponds.

Jeff didn't mention that GSF are suicidal and will hit anything immediately after being caught and released (as if anyone would do that). I think it is a shame thing.

Bing

Ditto!!

My warm weather favorite is a 5" Yum Dinger that's kinda "baby bass" colored on top and sorta cream colored on the bottom (can't find the exact one on the web right now but I bet I've bought 30 packs of them over the past few years). Cooler weather preferences is usually junebug or black in Yamamoto Senko - sometimes 5" but sometimes 4".

I like both Owner and Gammie EWG hooks as a rule. Usually a 5/0 but sometimes a 4/0.
Sometimes I want a bigger hook just for the extra weight.

Always T-rigged - where I fish, you gotta have a chance of working that bait through the sticks without getting hung up all the time.

I'm not scared of big hooks - I've caught a bunch of 12" bass on 6" Money Minnows using a 6/0 hook so, I don't believe that using a hook that is "too big" will keep you from catching the smaller fish when they bite.

Good feedback - thanks! I haven't been in the hook market for plastics for a long time, but when I used to bass fish I'd use Gamakatsu [sp?] Mustad or Owners. Sounds like they're still the leaders in quality.

For my SMB and HSB I can't wait to try a weightless fluke. The action they impart and slow horizontal fall is hypnotic until your arms are dislocated from their sockets by a suicidal SMB or HSB [although mine aren't quite to socket dislocating metrics...YET].