Is stealth really required

After walking a mile [I didn't measure it] the other day, I was as you can imagine ready to wash my hands in the sink that I had dutifully carried with me on my intrepid journey [ok sorry getting silly now.]

I gently lay my tackle on the ground and thought 'oh dear, I think I may have spooked the fish' ok I lay my tackle down as gently as I could bearing in mind I had no strength left in my legs, arms, body or anything else physically attached.

I set my chair up and sat in dismay that I had walked so far, I figured there was no point setting up for a while and I had taken everything I owned just incase I needed it.

Whilst enjoying the scenery and getting my mind back on the reason for being there; I heard thuds behind me, and then more thuds I saw lightning blue streak and spalsh along the water and watched a squirrel on the opposite bank climb down a tree and rattle around on the bankside, knocking things into the river and generally making quite abit of noise, the thuds behind were cows (although in other locations it might easily be sheep).

So all this long winded introduction is to ask: do we really need to be stealthy when approaching a swim? With all the tackle and bait I posses and the ability to lower said tackle at the gentle rate of 400 mph I could not compete with the Earth shattering thuds or moving silhouette on the skyline of a cow, or does this also spook fish?

Sorry bit long winded

You didn't say whether you caught anything after all that noise on the bank.
If you did catch a decent fish soon after collapsing with your heavy gear I would be surprised LOL.

I have had decent sized Chub swim right up to my feet while wading in a river once but after carefully climbing back onto the bank the slightest movement would spook them.

I would expect the fish would get used to the animal movements and recognise sounds that they experience on a regular basis much Like birds that sit on the backs of cattle without getting spooked, but they still get spooked by humans and preditors.

Personally I have always believed in avoiding doing anything that MIGHT just scare a fish. There is no doubt that vibration and even sound can disturb them. On many occasions I have seen bleak jump at the sound of a shot gun in the distance. I work on the premise that if I feel that I have done everything right and still fail to catch fish, then I have narrowed down the reasons for failure before I even begin to try to work out what went wrong. I have stuck to that philosophy when boat fishing in shallow water in the ocean. I never throw the anchor into the water, I lower it gently and I never knock stuff around in the boat. Very often my results seem to be every bit as good or better than most other anglers so I am happy to go along those lines. I guess that to put it in a nutshell, if there is something you think might scare fish, avoid doing it. Stealth and concealment will not stop you catching fish, but failing to practice them may.

Keith M said:

You didn't say whether you caught anything after all that noise on the bank.
If you did catch a decent fish soon after collapsing with your heavy gear I would be surprised LOL.

I have had decent sized Chub swim right up to my feet while wading in a river once but after carefully climbing back onto the bank the slightest movement would spook them.

I would expect the fish would get used to the animal movements and recognise sounds that they experience on a regular basis much Like birds that sit on the backs of cattle without getting spooked, but they still get spooked by humans and preditors.

Click to expand...

Fish behave totally different when you are in the water with them but the approach and getting in the water ininitally is a different matter in my experience. the more careful the approach the better your chance of a fish or two this seems to apply to most kinds of fishing.

It's a difficult question because it is affected by too many factors to be able to draw firm conclusions. For example I've caught some good grayling on a fly trailing in the water at the side of my waders while changing the point fly. I've had a double figure trout swim past my wellies and continue up a small stream as though I wasn't there. Yet I can also give many examples where fish have been spooked by the call of a woodpecker or the sound / vibration of a quarry blast five miles away.

In short, I don't think we'll ever know for sure.

I have seen people catch carp after hammering bivvy pegs into the ground.
















but it was 3 days after!!!

I've been snorkelling quite close to a pebble beach and I could hear people walking on the beach and children throwing stones (not at me) If I could differentiate the noises with ears that are designed primarily to work in air how much more could a fish pick up?

I try to err on the side of caution. I believe was it **** Walker that had a theory about how long a fish was likely to stay spooked, it was something like 20 mins per pound if I am not mistaken.

I used to keep fish in a tank and I used to stand at the end of the room and stamp my foot on the floor to varying degrees. Watching the reaction to the fish in the tank and how much they would dart about and panic. I was quite surprised how much as i got down to even the gentlest of stamps the fish would still dart about and panic; this was from about 12 ft away. Nothing scientific but, did make me think that keeping that keeping any vibration down whilst on the bank worthwhile.

Noise doesn't spook fish, unexpected noise can. At a farm pool I fished years ago, you could attract every fish in there by banging a gate - the farmer used to feed the fish once a day with stale bread, so they associated the noise with food. But if tou blinked too loudly anywhere else, the fish were gone.
Fish in the colne valley don't often spook when planes go overhead, but will by voices.

Mind you, on some lakes you'd think they'd be used to hammers, shouting, radios, heavy footsteps, etc by now!

Ray Roberts said:

I've been snorkelling quite close to a pebble beach and I could hear people walking on the beach and children throwing stones (not at me) If I could differentiate the noises with ears that are designed primarily to work in air how much more could a fish pick up?

I try to err on the side of caution. I believe was it **** Walker that had a theory about how long a fish was likely to stay spooked, it was something like 20 mins per pound if I am not mistaken.

Click to expand...

That quote by **** walker was specifically for chub.

Frothey said:

Noise doesn't spook fish, unexpected noise can. At a farm pool I fished years ago, you could attract every fish in there by banging a gate - the farmer used to feed the fish once a day with stale bread, so they associated the noise with food. But if tou blinked too loudly anywhere else, the fish were gone.
Fish in the colne valley don't often spook when planes go overhead, but will by voices.

Mind you, on some lakes you'd think they'd be used to hammers, shouting, radios, heavy footsteps, etc by now!

Click to expand...

Yeah, especially noise like shot guns which is what I said when I mentioned noise frightening fish.

Fis re-act to unexpected vibration by being spooked, fish like many animals can be attracted by specific vibration or sounds if it assoiates it with food and will even congregate in a area at certain times if feeding takes place at those specific times over a period. On some big trout fisheries where automatic timed feeders ar used it is possible th intercept trout on their way to the feeders before they begin to operate at a certain time. As someone already said about trout swimming past their waders when sea trout and salmon are running a rising river you can stand in inches of water and fish will be passing even swimming between your feet the urge to get to the redds is so strong other times your shadow or a ungarded light is enought to put the fish to flight . Whith out a daubt caution pays more dividends the first thing the old boys told you when you first started fishing was you must be quiet and it is the same all around the world if you are hunting stealth is more often than not a prerequisite.

I always try to approach a swim as quietly as possible, vibration for sure being a quick way to kill it with easily spooked fish.

One thing I noticed many years ago was when watching fish close quarters in clear water they would be fine as long as I remained really still but once eye contact was made that would be it... gone in a flash!

Since wearing a hat regularly I bow my head a little when watching which seems to hide the eyes to a degree and the fish will mill around much more oblivious.

Unless it's just my imagination

A friend I used to fish with was probably one of the noisiest and clumsiest anglers anyone could ever hope not to meet. After dropping his blue plastic tackle box from his shoulder (that was a drop of almost 6ft as he was a big lad) he then would start stomping about looking for the best swim/place to re position his whealy bin type tackle box. Then set up his rods etc whilst perching almost on the edge of the bank, with several bangs and clatters of his plastic tackle box lid.

The silly thing is he almost always caught fish, and usually more and bigger fish than me

A lot of the time we fished very small shallow becks not much wider than a 12ft float rod