Totally anecdotal but when I’m fishing from the bank and a bass boat comes by at a good clip, I seem to get bit right after. I think the boat disrupts the shad or other bait and the bass react.

#1 I am Old, so I move a lot slower than I used to, and I am a lot more patient than I used to be.

#2 I don't fish tournaments anymore. Just fish for fun.

#3 I do not have the latest in upgraded electronics. Any I'm not going to get them. I have a Motorguide, and an old sonar unit.

Over the last 15-20 years I have changed my approach to Slow and Silent. I slow down my presentation to try to cover all aspects of the relative piece of cover. Slow down the retrieve, and try to feel everything that's going on. Most of the areas that I fish, I have been to over 100 times in the past, so I pretty much know what's there. I try to be as silent as I can. My biggest downfall is the squeak that my pedestal chair makes, so I stand a lot. I shut down the big motor way away from the cover. Sometimes 100 or more yards or so away. Turn off the sonar, and drift into the area I want to fish. If possible I drift as far as I can along a stretch of cover like a stump field. Sometimes I'll tie to a stump, and take 10 minutes to slow worm a creek intersection. Drink a brew, eat some viennies, throw a few more times, then move on.

Gone are the days when I backseated on tournaments and my partner would drive the boat clear up on top of the brush pile, shut off the big motor, make two cast before the boat stopped rocking, then declare, "Well, there's nothing here".

Do I catch More? Bigger? I like to think so. Have I caught a fish in the wake of a boat. Of course. I have caught bass Underneath boats waiting to load up at the ramp. I have caught bass idling away from the dock while dragging a spinnerbait next to the boat to check it's action. But none of that is a Pattern that anyone should try.

I wish you younger guys all the enjoyment that fishing can bring. When it gets to where it's not enjoying, entertaining, or fulfilling, maybe it's time to take up golf or something. More power to ya.

I'll watch you go by, in my smokin 2-stroke, tied up to a stump. Wave if you can take your hands off the steering wheel for that long. 😁

I've been on offshore bites on Ivie where if you idled over an offshore point and marked fish you would not get bit immediately. While you could come back later in the day and catch fish, we never caught a fish immediately after graphing them.

We were fishing a charity tournament and on a huge school of 3-4' fish. Was catching them every cast in practice. Figured 3-4 lbers wouldn't win us anything so stuck around just to see if we could catch a bigger fish, never did.

Tournament morning I catch a 6 lber right away and then nothing. We decided to go try to put 4 3-4 lbers in the boat and then we could hunt for big fish. My buddy got off plane too late and shut down right on top of the fish. We fished for an hour without a bite.

We moved off of them with the trolling motor and came back a little later and it was a fish on every cast again. Only on tourney day they were all 2-3 lb fish.............


I have seen the same thing in the clear water at Alan Henry at times. If you idle over them or troll over them and mark them, you might as well leave and come back later.

Every fish is different. I do think marina fish are more apt to tolerating noise. As are fish on condensed recreational lakes. I've also noticed fish less spooky on grass lakes with a tremendous amount of coot/duck activity. I can spook the hundreds of coots, which create a tremendous amount of surface disturbance as they take off, and cast into it and catch a fish in 2-3ft.

You should watch Todd Driscoll's video series on tracking bass on Toledo. He's found some interesting things in regards to bass and boats/electronics spooking them. Some spook immediately and some literally let you get feet from them.

I do a lot of ledge fishing. One thing I've noticed over the years while graphing over a new spot. as Jerry said-- every fish or school of fish do not react the same to a boat.
Many times, I've graphed a spot that showed fish and never got a bite. Other times I've gotten bit on the first drop and often caught multiple fish.
With all that said - when fishing a known spot, I sneak up from the deep side.

I heard Alfie Solomons from Peaky Blinders.

As others have said, boat activities and noise may not have an effect and even may improve bites. They are, however, a nuisance if you're just out there enjoying the outdoors on the water and nature. So it can all depends on what you want from the day.

I agree it varies. Interesting topic. I know my pb public water fish I watched for hours leave the bed when any boat entered the large u shaped cove-like 100yards away trolling motor noise. I would have never seen her but noticed her tail swimming in deeper water out to the middle of the cove-lonely male left behind. I would have never caught her if boats had not finally stopped going in there.
Same thing with a very large radio tracked bass that John Hope studied-one Dennis Canada caught-Wolf creek Fork-similar spawning behavior.
Other times though, noise doesn’t hurt-esp feeding time, may help -kinda weird/depends. Bass crowd to feeder noise for example.
Maybe just superstitious, but I turn off all electronics and try as little noise as possible when sight fishing.

I've seen some research on this and don't recall which publication I saw it in but it had to be Bassmasters or the MLF magazine; don't remember how the test was performed, but they proved a bass boat can push fish away from it.
My personal experience fishing from a jon boat with sonar versus a full blown bass boat, there is a huge difference in the amount of fish I've seen between the two. Lake Fork really shows a huge difference. I don't know exactly what I was seeing but most of the places on Fork I went in the jon boat it was like the lake had an almost continuous layer of fish and shad. Most of my sonar views from the jon boat were in the Rainswood/Birch Creek area.