Lure Fishing Masterclass: Understanding Lure Rattles And What Fish Hear!

G’day folks, todays podcast is a little different to my usual offerings. I thought we’d take the opportunity to explore how the sound of your lures can affect whether fish are attracted or scared off – or even whether fish can hear them at all!

Hope you enjoy the show – and if you have questions, please leave them in the comments section below.

[skipto time=01:20]Could Lure Sound Be More Important Than Colour? [/skipto]I believe so, yes. In fact, once you understand some of the basics about how fish use and react to sounds you’ll realise that they can be “turned off” before they ever see your lure. Such is the importance of sound……

[skipto time=06:14]How Fish Associate Sounds With Experiences.[/skipto]Like human beings, fish can associate sounds with experiences, both good and bad. The trick is to find sounds that create a feeding or territorial response that will result in fish eating your lure.

[skipto time=08:05] What Can Fish Actually Hear?[/skipto]Hint: it’s different than what humans can hear! Fish can’t hear a lot of the sounds that a human ear can, but they can also hear a few sounds that human ears can’t. The volume or sound properties of a lure to human ears is no indication of how that same lure sounds to fish.

[skipto time=11:40] Lure Rattle Demonstration [/skipto]Being a nerdy, sciency type, I’ve done a little sound experiment that demonstrates how different your lure can sound to fish than it does to you. I compare two lures and show that the one that seems loudest to our ears is actually less audible to fish then the second lure.

[skipto time=15:13] Do Lure Rattles Attract Or Repel Fish? [/skipto]I spend a little bit of time talking about why the quality of sound that your lure emits is so important.

[skipto time=17:50] How Fish Get Educated By Rattles Not To Eat Lures. [/skipto]Rattles are definitely a double-edged sword, especially in hard-fished waters. Silent offerings can be golden in these circumstances.

[skipto time=21:07] For The Thinking Angler: [/skipto]I sum up what we now know about the effectiveness of rattles for attracting fish to lures and discuss how that info can be used by the thinking angler

[skipto time=25:00] Making Custom Wooden Lures [/skipto]is a great way to have control over and experiment with the sound your lures emit and can be particularly powerful in increasing your catch rates.