Does talking scare fish?

[FishnDave]

I stumbled across this and thought I would share it. No need to whisper while fishing!

(Sound) waves from the air do not penetrate into water, and sound waves in water do not penetrate into the air. The two media are acoustically separate. This may be of interest to anglers, who can feel free to talk while they fish.

Of course, most of you probably already knew this.

[ducksterman]

Sorry, I don't buy it. Sound waves are indeed transferred into water quite inefficiently however some gets absorbed ...that's why we have a middle ear.

[maodiver]

Have to call horsefeathers on this one. I can hear people when they yell above water when I am submerged a few inches in a pool...yes the sound becomes negligible if one gets down below that, though.

[FishnDave]

This is a major setback to my plan of training the fish in local waters to come to the sound of my voice!

[Uncle Jesse]

This is a major setback to my plan of training the fish in local waters to come to the sound of my voice!

That's easy, submerge your face and yell while throwing floating fish food. They will respond to one of those sounds.

I think the bass fisherman researched this to death many years ago, you have to yell really loud to penetrate the surface with sound waves. Dropping anything in an aluminum boat on the other hand sends out sound waves that everyone in the water hears.

[jjtroutbum]

This tale was obviously perpetrated long ago by a husband that was forced to fish with his wife.

[lastchance]

I think it depends on what you say to them.

[DaleW]

When I was a young boy that was the ploy used by my Dad and my uncle to keep me quiet!

[Grubb]

OK, what if you are standing in the water wading and the sound waves are traveling down your body into the water?
Sorry,
I just had to add 2cents worth...

[Silver Creek]

There are differences between vibrations directly transmitted to the water such as walking and sound waves from the air transmitted to the water. I agree with the poster that talking does not spook fish.

It is not enough to say that if you were under water and and someone shouted above you, you can hear the shout. First of all, you are selectively listening for that specific noise and your ear is tuned for human speech. The fish are not.

Fish detect vibrations mainly through their lateral lines and they do have an inner ear for higher vibrations. However to hear human speech, these two methods of hearing must be able to detect the frequency of human speech. They are not very sensitive to the frequency range of human speech. Plus even if they heard a whisper of noise, they would not easily recognize it as danger amongst the other noises of running water

"1) Trout cannot hear human voices as we speak at a range outside of their hearing frequency so it?s ok to have the stream-side conversation"

http://www.hooked-on-flies.com/trout_basics.htm


"Trout Hearing. Trouts hear through frequency receptors and movement receptors so they can find food in all types of water. Fish cannot hear voices outside the water if you talk."

http://www.troutfishingtip.com/flyfishingtips.html


"First, trout can't hear human voices outside of the water. Thus, having a loud conversation about something along the bank of a river will not spook the trout."

http://www.fishtheoutdoors.com/artic...senses-21.html