Activity level may not have anything to do with memory, but it can over come the sense of fear.

The late Tom Mann has a chapter in his book; Think like a Fish, where he relates to stirring up wed beds to generate bass feeding activity. Tom would run his big engine through weed beds to chop them up and get the baitfish hiding within the weeds exposed so bass would start to feed on them. Clever concept that works very well. Bass became active and over came the fear of noise and boats to take advantage of an easy meal.

WRB

Yes! And it brings up the conundrum you warned of in your earlier post -trying to understand fish (in this case) through the human filter. One might think that bass would be afraid of an outboard motor -that loud water churning monster. But divers have consistently commented that that often isn't the case, especially in waters where motors are commonplace. What is much more apt to frighten them are shadows and water thrusts as in canoe (and kayak) paddles, or swim fins according to diver Bob Underwood. (I didn't respond to you John, earlier, bc it's not simple. I believe Underwood, but think there's real contextual stuff there that must be in play.)

From Ralph Manns:

Heavily pressured bass are harder to catch because they have focused on one or more of the warning signals produced by typical anglers. It may be noises of troll motors, the pressure waves created by a moving boat, visual or vibrational evidence of a line moving through water, unnatural movement of shape of a lure, boat or sonar noises, or a million other potential negative stimuli that a bass may receive while being reeled to a bass boat and netted.

At the same time, they easily learn to ignore passing outboard motors and noises from overhead docks that are not immediately associated with the "being hooked" experience. Bass learn to ignore jet skis, skiers, and swimmers. I've watched bass underwater as they examined the toes of swimming children and saw them feed while a man hammered to repair his sailboat overhead.

Associate a food reward with an outboard motor and the bass are happy to line right up.

Interesting stuff, but me thinks we're drifting off topic. Problem is, the topic, and the terms being thrown about, like "memory" and "learning" may not be well understood. It's certainly not my line of work; Just a lowly fisherman I am ;D.

I noticed Bob Lusk has offered a rebuttle to Ralph Manns article "How Smart Are Bass?" in the articles section. He claims "15 minutes". And that conditioning and memory are different. In my ignorance I'm pretty much lumping it all under learning trying to stay relevant to angler's interests. Are bass able to avoid lures/anglers after exposure to them? I guess I'd need to know where Bob got that number, and what that definition of "memory" is.

Too many research pieces or researcher's comments have shown bass have an ability to avoid lures for much longer periods, up to 3 months.

I am left here to wonder -what is the rigorous definition of "memory", vs "learning" vs "conditioning". I do remember from my education psychology classes the (human) distinctions: register, short term, and long term memory. I would certainly call "conditioning" a type of learning, but does it count as memory? And is "memory" just after one exposure? How many people can do that? Gosh, I took calculus once upon a time but cannot remember even one of those theorems. Use it or lose it. Is that not some form of conditioning?

Bob also mentions that for bass a lure either represents food or not food. But is that not a form of learning, and if it persists, is that not memory? From my own observations though, I believe I can take it a step further, in that the sight of a lure can actually scare a bass into flight. Not food doesn't do that. On one particular outing sight fishing to good numbers of smallies I was aware of the possibility that they saw me, my casting motion, or my line shadow (which will spook them), and I was able to separate this on several occasions when the cast settled way ahead of the bass' travel route and the eventual sight of the bait made them bolt! I was quite convinced (but not closed) that it's more than "food" or "not food" -it's "danger".

How long might that persist? That's the question. According to some researcher's it CAN be as much as months. This brings me back to what works for me in my fishing, pay attention to conditions and physical elements that you can take advantage of. The playing field is ever-changing.

The difference in memory and learned condition is a grey line when thinking in terms of fish behavior or animal behavior in general. We humans believe that we alone have the ability to reason. The truth is we are still developing our learning skills. It;s not too far fetched to believe that bass are developing learning skills in environments that require new skills.

Animals can't reason, then Alex the African parrot comes along and changes our perception of avian intelligence.

Keep an open mind, it may help you to be a better fisherman. When basses environment is quite, loud unusual noise may alarm them, however the same noises around a marina may not. I prefer the quite approach, but that doesn't mean it's always the best technique, it's what I'm conditioned to believe.

WRB