Thursday, September 6, 2012

"Psst - don't eat that"

A buddy and I were talking about something he recently read - apparently, carp release pheromones once hooked that tell other carp of danger. I'd heard years ago about catfish "screaming" when hooked to alert others. And today, I read an article on NPR.org about birds who use a certain "cacophony" upon finding a dead companion.

From that article:  "In other words, the birds tell each other about a dead companion, and so individually and collectively the scrub-jays may learn something about predation risks. By calling in others (the cacophonous aggregations), they may be more likely to drive a predator away or to warn relatives and mates of danger." - Barbara J. King

This may tell us something about how trout evolve to be more selective - they learn that eating certain "food" can cause them to be pulled to shore, and general leeriness of suspect food becomes the m.o. Maybe they then can share what they've learned to be "hook-ful food" with others, and eventually they collectively (and slowly) learn to identify a Stimulator or Girdle Bug as a no-no, at least now and then.

Or maybe trout are just instinctual animals that cannot help but eat what appears to be food.
"AAAAHHHHH!", the trout said.

5 comments:

Fly Waters Edge - Kevin said...

3 guys standing around a camp fire drinking beer.
1 guy opens a beer and takes a drink. Gets a sour look on his face and holds the beer out to 2nd guy saying, Does this taste bad to you?
2nd guy takes a drink gets a sour look on his face and spits out the beer.
He holds the beer out to the 3rd guy saying what do you think?
3rd guy says I think I'm not going to taste that beer.
You could be on to something!

Josh Bergan said...

Ha! If trout are anything like three guys standing around a campfire, anyhow.

HighPlainsFlyFisher said...

Thanks man...added excuse #27 to the list!!

Josh Bergan said...

You can't have too many.

Feather Chucker said...

Thanks for the comment on my blog. I never heard the bird thing. I think with fish there is an opposite thing with some species. It seems whenever I catch 1 largemouth I usually catch another on in the same area. I've also seen them follow a caught fish. I've seen stripers do the same thing almost trying to steal the fly in the fishes mouth.