Fish behavior and understanding how fish think and act, is a common question among Alaska fishing enthusiasts. We often ask ourselves why salmon, halibut, or whatever fish species we are after behave as they do. Many questions occupy our thinking while in pursuit of the day’s bag limit. How deep are they? What color are they biting? What fishing lure is best? Where are they hiding at this tide, this time of day, or this month of the year? The list is long, and I guarantee you that people would line up to buy a product that taught them how to think like a fish.
Vince Lombardi is renowned for holding up a football in the Green Bay Packer locker room at the start of the 1961 season and saying, “Gentlemen, this is a football.” Coach Lombardi was going back to the fundamentals with his team.
From time to time, fishing enthusiasts likewise need to go back to the fundamentals. They need to remember their fishing foundation. Doing so will improve success. However, figuring out the fundamentals of fish behavior can be a little tricky. Where do you start? Is it the gear? Is it where to fish? Or, how to fish? Each question creates other questions when you really start to dissect fish behavior.
I was perplexed by the thought of distilling fishing fundamentals down to a few basics. What do you hold up in fishing? What is our “football”?
We often think we know the answer to something and forget to explore the unknown. How frequently have we missed a wonderful aha moment simply because we didn’t test a belief or conduct a simple experiment to confirm a result? Likely, too many times.
The Fish Behavior Moment of Eureka!
I, for one, was guilty of never looking a salmon, halibut, cod, or rockfish in the eyes and asking why they behaved as they did? Assuming that fish don’t talk, I never asked them a question. I was guilty of thinking something true—fish can’t speak—without really checking it out through experimentation. Were we missing a super important piece to the fish behavior puzzle because of this neglect? Shame on me.
The 2021 Alaska fishing season was the year to make that change. Every salmon, halibut, cod, or rockfish caught and kept on Decaboat was asked one simple question. “Fish, why did you bite my bait?” Maybe, just maybe, the big fundamental of fish behavior, that one key to true fishing success, would be revealed!
Not wanting to miss a moment of Eureka, the man-fish dialogue was filmed when a willing deckhand handled the camera. After all, capturing the revelation straight from the fish’s mouth would be monumental. The world needed to see that! It would be as big as filming a provable Sasquatch sighting.
Decaboat gathered a slew of man-fish questioning clips throughout the 2021 fishing season. A compilation of them has been turned into a short Appanage Fishing video entitled, what else, “Fish, Why Did You Bite My Bait?” I felt good that I was on the road to pulling back the misty shroud that would reveal the answers surrounding fish behavior and associated fishing success.
You are probably wondering about the great revelation discovered about fish behavior fundamentals. Exploring these deep secrets will be the subject of future monthly blogs. To receive a copy of the monthly blog in your inbox, fill out this email request form, and we’ll make sure you get them.
For more information about Scent Striker, read this blog by Fish Alaska magazine about our innovative Alaskan owned company.