I suggest it is an excuse, as they like their peace and quiet while fishing. :)

I guess it is those fisherman that havent got a clue about the fish. They just like to escape their nagging Mrs, and the stupid housework! ;o)

Fish can't hear, but they are good at detecting vibrations made by humans on the waters edge,which scares them away.

Fish can't hear, but they are good at detecting vibrations made by humans on the waters edge,which scares them away.

I think it may have a lot to do with vibrations that the fish can feel. Believe this or not. Back a few years ago I was fishing on the river. I had no luck not one bite for hours. As I was about ready to pick up and leave. About twenty or more kids came down stream on their tubes, making all kinds of racket. Well I was just ready to put up the polls when these kids passed by. After they were about twenty feet down stream from me the fish started bitting left & right none stop for at least a half hour or more. I had never seen this happen before. To this day all I can say is those fish must of been following those kids. Maybe the kids were pitching feed or something out behind them. All I know is I had to clean fish for the next few hours...M.C.S.

It’s as simple as this: you can’t catch them if you scare them, and the more shallow fish are the more noises affect them. I think most fishermen don’t pay much attention to noises because they don’t realize fish hear things in an entirely different way. Who hasn’t caught a good fish, hooped and hollered about it, and then caught another. Because talking bounces off the surface of the water and does not reach or frighten fish, we tend to forget that other very subtle sounds made on the bottoms of boats and on the banks are alarming. Something that does not sound loud to us may be deafening to fish. That’s because fish don’t hear sounds. They detect vibrations, and these vibrations travel about one mile per second through water, or about five times faster than noises do through air. To top that off, water doesn’t slow these vibrations down the way air slows noises. Scientists believe that fish in general can detect noises through their inner ear from up to two miles away. No matter what you fish for, and especially if you’re after catfish, a quiet approach that doesn’t alarm fish with unusual noises is very important. “Unusual” may mean surprisingly different things in various environments. For example, the sound of an outboard motor in a large lake that receives heavy use from skiers, pleasure boaters, and fishermen will not alarm fish as much as a small outboard on a normally placid small lake or pond. Nevertheless, I believe it is a good idea even on the biggest lakes to set the boat down early and idle into a fishing area, closing the last 100 yards or so with the trolling motor. Someone stomping around on a rip-rap bank below a hydroelectric dam may go unnoticed, while a lone fisherman simply tapping his toe to a tune on the bank of a quiet lake at night may scare every fish within casting distance. Vibrations! There’s another way to look at this, too, from a fish’s point of view, or rather hearing. A fish’s sense of hearing is a big part of its feeding routine. Scientists have determined, for example, that bass can hear (or feel) the vibrations of a minnow swimming 20 or 30 feet away, and they can tell from those low-frequency sounds (detected through their lateral line) whether that minnow is healthy or injured by the way its tail displaces water molecules. Injured baitfish displace these molecules differently because injuries throw their graceful swimming motion out of balance. One of the reasons live bait is so effective is that when you drive a hook through a minnow, you automatically restrict its movement and send distress signals out to predator fish. That’s one of the reason a dead minnow doesn’t catch fish. They don’t hear it. This probably has more interest to crappie fishermen, but bass fishermen should also note that the reason this or that crankbait is catching fish may have more to do with how it displaces water than the shiny finish. So, which fish has the best sense of hearing? According to Dr. Hong Y. Yan, Associate Professor of Biology at the University of Kentucky, catfish have the best ears in the pond. This is because they contain a bunch of little bones that act like a high intensity hearing aid. This modified series of vertebrae, called “Weberian ossicles,” connect the gas bladder (swim bladder) directly to the catfish’s inner ear. Here’s how it works: Most fish detect vibrations through their inner ear and their lateral line. Because their bodies are about the same density as water, sounds transmitted through water actually pass right through all fish. When vibrations passe through a fish’s gas bladder, it causes the gas inside to expand and compress. The modified vertebrae of catfish pick up the pressure component of the vibrations and transmit them directly to the inner ear. These little bones, which are unique to catfish and goldfish, act like an amplifier. According to the scientists, bass and many other fish, for example, hear up to about 800 Hz, while catfish hear up to 5,000 Hz–or a little over six times better. When you think about this, it makes sense. The less a creature uses his sense of sight the more it would use its sense of hearing and smell. Think about that the next time you’re stomping around on the bank or tapping your foot to a tune while you’re waiting for a catfish to bite this spring.