Are Bass really that Smart? Opinions.

[Swimbait618]

I recently stumbled upon a video on youtube of Bob Lusk a professional fisheries biologist and lake management consultant. He talks about a couple different things in this video that I found interesting. One being how fish get big he basically said that the way double digit bass get so big is purely by chance. Which I see how there is some factors that are purely on luck, however, he immediately points out in the video that the double digit bass is not smart and emphasizes that bass can't think, they just react to baits. So in short he says bass get that big because they have good genetics (which I agree on), and he says the rest is just by chance the fact they don't get caught or eaten by other prey (I do not fully agree on this). I really think bass are smart and can recognize certain baits and associate them with fishers as well knowing how to avoid being caught. Which brings me to another thing he brought up and this was regarding the basses capacity to remember things. He mentioned bass can only remember things for around 15 minutes. I have a hard time believing this especially when it comes to a big fish. I feel a bass can associate a bait to the fisher and can remember not to bite certain baits especially after seeing the bait so many times. I have read tons of stuff and watched many videos regarding how smart bass can be and this was the first one that had said bass really aren't that smart and it has been sitting in the back of my mind the past couple of days. I am going to post a link for the video so anyone interested can listen for themselves, he starts talking about how bass get big around the 6 minute mark. I'd like to know more people's opinions and experiences with this topic. Thanks for any responses in advance. 

 

[Rogervang]

58 minutes ago, Swimbait618 said:

"he immediately points out in the video that the double digit bass is not smart"

Kinda sounds like bob is not smart.

[azsouth]

well if they are not smart what does that say about bass fisherman? …..just asking

[dheath2]

“Smart” is a relative term.  

[NEbucketmouth19]

I've never liked the term "smart" but to say it's by chance I think is wrong. Smart to me implies they see a bait and analyze every aspect of it and cross-reference it in their memory bank with every other bait they've ever seen to see if it's real or not. I don't think they do that. BUT if it was purely chance they got that big then on the lakes that get slammed every weekend these fish are seeing just as many lures as the aggressive 1lbers see and I think there's gotta be something that differentiates them.

I've always subscribed to the "lazy" theory, that they don't expend any energy they don't absolutely have to and learn this as they grow bigger and older as a habit. This immediately makes them harder to catch for most fisherman that are just chucking and winding and don't have a strategy to target these fish in key areas, since they aren't gonna spend the energy to chase down small lures unless they're right in front of their face. The swimbait IMO get better odds because it's now worth it to them to chase down a bigger meal. 

That's how I reason it out, but what do I know. 

[High Power Swimbaits]

The problem here is trying to compare a bass and giving it traits that people can relate to better or even human traits and make them something they are not. For example fish cant be lazy but can be very energy efficient. Learning isn't like human learning it's more being conditioned to the environment around them.   Fish brains are the size of a pea. They aren't intelligent. The eyes of a fish can see details but their brains don't process it like a human brain does or anywhere close to that and reason or "think" about it. It just reacts to them in the way it is conditioned to over time or by genetics that make the fish a fish. 

[bigpoppabass]

They call senkos dummy baits for a reason. 

[chevro1et]

I think @High Power Swimbaits hit the bullseye with the word, 'conditioned'. Also, I believe that large bass are not necessarily 'lazy', but something more akin to 'wary'.

[El_Weruso]

I do believe they only remember an event for about 15minutes, I've caught bass that miss my lure the first time then i'll just wait 15/20 minutes or so then present the lure again and catch the fish. They are smart, cause bigger fish that have bit my swimbaitunderground will miss the hooks with high accuracy.

[TommyGun316]

"Bass are stupid. They're just smarter than we are."

Have truer words never been spoken?