Music On The Boat?

[UTBASS]

What do we like listening to while we fish? Or do we even like to listen to music?

Personally, I like old country music and good friends. What do you guys like?
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[fishboy2]

well me being a youngsta i like to listen to punk, and alternative rock, but there is always the blues that have there right place while fishing. o and i turn it up as loud as it goes on my headphones so nobody can disturb me.
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[CatmanErv]

I only allow the music of one female artist on my boat. The lead is done by a gal called Mother Nature, and if you listen carefully you can hear Her chorus of thousands spread out through the trees and skies. It would be almost sacrilegious to listen to anyone else out in Her theater of the fine arts.
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[wiperhunter2]

I rarely listen to music but sometimes I listen to KSL if something is on that I find interesting. WH2
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[icefool]

I'm with you catman, when I m fishing I like to listen to mother nature. But on the way there and back I like hip-hop and rap.[my kids and grandkids have finally gotten used to that] I like eminem,dmx,missy elliott and so on.
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[southernman]

im wth you . . except if im in the land of motorboats and water skiers, then ill take anything to drown out the funk around me . . .



sm
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[TubeDude]

[cool]You might want to rethink having any kind of music...if you are serious about catching fish. Sound travels through water five times faster and more efficiently than through air. And, while I have never known a fish that was a music critic, I have observed the reactions of fish to unnatural sounds in their environments.

I have been a diver since before I became a float tube fisherman...over 40 years for both. I have witnessed first hand what touchy species...like LMB do when a pleasure craft comes cruising overhead with the stereo on high. I can hear every beat of the bass and every note of the music, while underwater, and the sensitive lateral lines of fish are even more receptive to such vibrations. I have seen formerly complacent largies, crappies and even sunfish go rocketing out of a cove for deeper water when loud music starts reverberating through their habitat.

On one of the lakes I tube in Arizona, I have had several productive mornings come to a "screeching" halt when a boat full of partyers comes cruising over to see what I am doing...with the sounds turned up. My sonar screen goes blank and my lures go unmolested for the rest of the morning.

I suspect that catfish may be different. A former fishing buddy from Ogden (now deceased) used to invite my wife and I on sundown cruises on Willard Bay...aboard his large cruiser, with all the amenities. As we drifted slowly across the calm summer waters, enjoying a broiled steak from the onboard grill, listening to his favorite "fishing music"..."BLOOD IN THE SADDLE" (I think it was by Tex Ritter...or maybe Slim Whitman)...we trailed baited lines off the stern. The channel cats loved it. However, it may have been the "blood" in the song that attracted them. Or maybe they were just responding to the sounds of an obviously distressed singer, as potential prey.
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[southernman]

youre too funny TD . . im off to fish near pioche . . eagle valley res, and echo canyon . .



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[PREDATOR]

Tube dude, youy bring up a very interesting topic. I personally disconected the radio in my boat before it ever hit the water. I go fishing to get away from all that crap. But the idea of sound traveling through water is one that is very interesting to discuss. I have heard that the waters surface deflects 99% of the noise above but noise produced under the surface of the water or on its surface travels very far. The idea being that it doesnt really make much differenced what goes on above, and also the idea that the exhaust noise of a trolling motor would by far drown out any noise above the surface if you were trolling. I for one wonder if the fish really mind all that noise or not. I have seen fish caught right in the prop wash of a kicker motor where the noise and water disturbance is at its highest. I dont know much about it but have thought about the noise issue on many occasions.
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[BearLakeMack]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]I listening to "Screaming Drags" by any reel artist...[/size][/font]
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[MountainMan]

I gotta admit, while I usually don't listen to music while I'm fishing, I am a "music man" myself. I usually don't listen to music because it's only a hassle to carry anything electronic when you're stream fishing, or float tube fishing, or even shore fishing, and the boat is old, and the radio doesn't work. But if I had to take my pick, I would listen to everything from contemporary jazz, to alternative rock, to beethoven. Just so long as it isn't country (What? [shocked] a southern boy like me) and pop like Britney Spears and N'sync. I can't stand ©rap either. And opera will scare all the other fisherman away[], but also all the fish. Anything else I will usually listen to. Some of my personal favorite artists are The Rippingtons (jazz), Billy Joel (soft rock), Chicago (Soft rock), James Taylor (soft rock), Boston (classic rock), P.O.D. (Alternative Christian rock), Nirvana (Grunge rock), Staind (Grunge rock), Bob Marley (Raggae), and a never-ending list of music. But I also have to agree, that the best music is created by the breeze or the sound of a babbling brook (next to a squealing reel of course).
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[fishfood]

The only thing I want to say is that I do not want to listen to someone elses music when I am fishing.[:/]
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[TubeDude]

[cool]Hey, Predator, just for the record, I am offering only my own observations and opinions. As we all know, there are few "absolutes" in fishing...or anything else. For everything we can find to get on a soapbox about, there well be someone else with a dissenting opinion.

I have conducted ongoing reading and research on the issue of sounds, and their effects on fish...positive and negative. The one thing I have read in several places, that makes sense to me, is that most fish respond to low frequency sounds more positively than high frequency. Anyone basically familiar with the physics of sound understands that low frequency means bigger sound waves and lower pitch. High pitched (high frequency) sound can affect fish just like some of today's music (noise) affects people of the older generations (like me). It is unnatural to them and they get nervous and boogie. One explanation is that the tail beats of fleeing bait fish make a very low frequency vibration, stimulating to predators (no pun intended), whereas higher pitch can trigger a flight response, from unknown potential dangers. Fish don't know from Britney or the Dixie Chicks.

On the issue of the above water vs below water, the difference is in how your sound system is attached to the boat. If speakers are connected to the superstructure, which is connected to the hull, the vibrations will travel through the solid parts of the boat's frame, through the hull and be broadcast with great clarity into the surrounding water. As I mentioned, I have heard music while submerged and it is almost as if there are underwater speakers on some boats.

It is well known and documented that many species of fish are indeed attracted to the prop wash...especially at certain rpms. This may be a factor of the simulated tail vibrations of prey species. Who knows? Almost anyone who has trolled in the open ocean...for a variety of tunas and/or billfish...has stories of days when the best place to put the lures or baits was right behind the boat.

I have heard more than a few of the pro bass boys propose the same theory...that music is not a good bass attractant. And I once saw a guide on a salmon drift boat, on the Smith River, in California, actually throw a client's "boom box" into the river after being blasted with sudden blaring music..

All that being said, I enjoy a wide variety of music myself, and would enjoy being able to fish and listen at the same time. The fact that I wait until I am headed home to turn up the tunes is a result of practicing what I preach. Or maybe it's because I can't get good speakers for my tube.
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[Hellsangler69]

I use to do quite well trolling for Kokes at the the "Berry" with the Stones playing . But in shallow water it is off .
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[danzilla]

I appreciate you posting this subject. My wife has been killing me trying to get me to put a cd player in my baot. I keep telling her that I wont have it now I have some ammunition to shoot her way.

I listen to about anything but I go fishing to hear nothing. D
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[polokid]

I usually am the type that likes it silent while on the boat. But last year at Strawberry, it was a really slow day of fishin' until we put in some TuPac- rap music. Not a big Tupac fan, but we started catching more fish than anyone else on the lake.
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[neveronsunday]

[#ff0000]The sound of the boat on the water is the music to my ears. Thanx again Predator![/#ff0000]
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[Kayote]

I learned the hard way not to listen to music while trailering/towing a boat. Funny how you just can't hear that tire flapping or skeg dragging with Guns N Roses on 9. Do'H

Good Fishing, Kayote
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[Curtisfish]

I have to agree with Tube Dude and Predator. I cut the power wires to the radio just after the boat got into my driveway. I thought about hooking it back up for the kids, but it just hasn't happened. Go figure...
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[KokeKiller]

OK OK, I had to put in on this one. My Bayliner has a Clarion CD deck with remote, 800 watt amp, 10 inch sub and 6 inch mids. Better system in my boat than in my truck! I have to say this: Lake Powell, a few bikinis, a cold one and Nine Inch Nails, Soundgarden or what ever the cutest blond wants to listen to and I am all over that!! Nothing wrong with a little tune to get the party going. I also have to say that I have an X-85, two Cannon Mini-Mags and tackle boxes for each occasion, ie warm water, trout, kokes and macs. There is time and place for everything.



KK
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