Behavior Patterns 245 



overboard were seized at once and "the congregated bass remained to 

 see how long our generosity would last." A fly or spinner flipped among 

 diem resulted in a strike immediately, but once the unlucky individual 

 was hooked, the rest vanished. Continued casting was useless until the 

 boat was moved to a new location. This type of observation could be 

 made almost anxwhere on Spavinaw Lake on davs when few fishermen 

 were present. 



"Records reveal that on days of heavy fishing, Friday, Saturday, and 

 Sunday, the catch per person was very low. This poor catch is not the 

 result of an abundance of poor or mediocre fishermen. The best anglers 

 have learned that they cannot always catch fish, particularly bass, when 

 there is a crowd on the lake. Everyone reports seeing plenty of bass, but 

 few catches are made on weekends." 



Ciampi,-^ after testing fish at the Shedd Aquarium (Chicago), con- 

 cluded that the largemouth bass demonstrated the highest level of "in- 

 telligence" in avoiding artificial baits, with the smallmouth bass following 

 close behind. Along with the muskellunge, they were the only species 

 that would not take an artificial bait after any other fish in the same tank 

 had hit it. On the basis of his experiments, Ciampi ranks the "intelligence" 

 of fish studied in the following order: (1) largemouth bass, (2) small- 

 mouth bass, ( 3 ) muskellunge, ( 4 ) northern pike, ( 5 ) trout, ( 6 ) bluegill, 

 (7) crappies, (8) gar. 



Fisherman '"Know-how" A fisherman must realize (if he is to be suc- 

 cessful in catching the more wary fish) that he must introduce himself 

 and his fishing lure into the fishes' environmental background without 

 causing undue alarm. At this point many would-be fishermen are failures, 

 because they assume that they are operating mostly in one medium 

 (air), while the fish are operating in another, and because they cannot 

 see, hear, smell, or feel the presence of fish in the water below, that the 

 fish cannot see, hear, smell, or feel their presence above. Usually a fish is 

 made wary of impending danger or at least of an abnormal addition to 

 its environment before the lure has even been presented. Under these 

 conditions a fisherman places himself under a severe handicap that must 

 be overcome before he can expect a strike. A quiet fisherman in a slow- 

 moving boat propelled by quiet oars in well-oiled oarlocks, or a sculling 

 paddle, may bring himself within casting distance of a bass without 

 alerting the fish to his presence. On heavily fished waters where noisy 

 fisherman are the rule rather than the exception, a quiet approach may 

 catch a fish "off guard." 



Creel records on heavily fished waters have shown that more than 80 

 per cent of the fish are caught by less than 50 per cent of the fishermen— 

 in the case of largemouth bass the catch usually is made by about 25 

 per cent of the fishermen. 



