Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations west coast ponds??

A friend and I learned a good lesson recently. We were ice fishing for y.perch. My friend changed from a jigging rapala to a Swedish pimple. Perch went "nuts" for it and were hiting it even without bait for about 4 or 5 hooked fish, then they started getting hook smart. We could watch them on the fish finder. More and more gradually, fish started shying away from the lure. Until after about 12-20 minutes of using the Swedish pimple, numerous fish would just approach the even natural, bait, tipped lure, fish would pause, get a good look, and then turn away. These fish were not just previously caught. These fish seemed to have become cautious from watching the other fish get "jaw jerked" and dissapear. Some think a scent is released by some types of fish that others recognize and this affects behavior. It didn't take neighboring perch long to "figure out" they now did not like the once attractive lure. The water was even clear enough that we could watch the fish's behavior when the lure was re-lowered to the bite zone. When they became cautious several fish would quickly approach the reintroduced lure and when one fish decided to turn away others would also turn and swim away from the lure. What we don't know is how long fish are able to remember their experiences. I personally think this ability or condition is an individual by individual variable among fishes similar to humans or other animals. Some "forget" quickly (dumb) and a few others take quite awhile longer to forget (smarter) while a lot of the others fall in-between the two extremes. I also think it has to do with how often the fish are conditioned or exposed to one type of lure or fishing method.

It is thought that the dumbest and or the fastest growing / most aggressive fish are the first to bite in a new fishery or year class of fish. Often most of these fish are harvested and the gene pool for this feature or behaviour
is then removed from the breeding population. This then tends to produce over time ever increasing smarter fish in that body of water.

In the past, I have seen similar behavior with LMB and bluegills.