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Rattle or not to rattle, that has been the question since a weight came loose in a plastic lure in the 60’s. Both sides have weighed in on this, but the debate goes on. A few years the rattle side tried to convince you that louder was better. That didn’t last long, but the no rattles group have begun to question that also.
Sound is just a part of the vibrations fish feel as you drag a lure through the water. The movement of a lure is felt by a fish even if the lure has no rattles. no vibration, just movement. Bass have one olfactory sense, one visual sense, but three ways to pick up movement (vibration) in the water. They pick up vibration patterns through their lateral line, inner ear and swim bladder. Studies have shown that vibration will attract fish even quicker than taste-smell. One study showed sharks were attracted to vibration more often than blood even though their ability to pick up blood in the water is very acute. This tells me that vibration is at least twice as important as color but in the past, most attention has been put on color.
Notice I said vibration patterns. Not all sound is the same. Bass, as other fish, have fine tuned senses which allow them to chase down prey even in the dark of night in muddy water down 20 feet. But those same senses warn them of danger when things just don’t seem right . The trick is to use this refined sense to attract fish, not spook them.
Lee Sisson at Lee Sisson Lures has spent a life time studying the reactions sound has on fish. Years of research on the water, studying bass in tanks and talking to fisheries biologist have confirmed the fact that fish are attracted by certain vibration patterns. “It all started back when I was in college”. Sisson says. “As a student I had plenty of time to fish and spent many hours on Toledo Bend. I always wondered how bass kept up and found schools of shad. One day as I was running down the lake a school of shad came up. It was a hot day anyway so I bailed out of the boat and into this big school of shad. That is the first time I heard the ticking sound. All around me were shad and they were all making a sound like clicking two small rocks together under water. As I watched and listened a school of bass attacked the shad, slashing through the shad as they tried to escape. I watched as the bass chased the school seeing crippled shad sink towards the bottom where even larger bass waited to feed.” Sisson goes on to say, “I learned two things that day, sound is a very important aspect of fishing, and I sure am glad I’m not a shad.”
If you have ever been in an aluminum boat when a school of shad came by you probably have heard the sound. The same ticking sound is made by crawfish. This is the reason Sisson has developed the tuned Ticker sound chamber. The Ticker in Sisson lures simulate the sounds that both crawfish and shad make. “I don’t want a loud sound in my lures but I do want the right sound. We developed the Ticker sound years ago and it has been so successful that we now put it in all of our crankbaits”.
So as the sound debate goes on now there is a third option. Not just a noise maker but tuned sounds which simulate bait fish and attract fish. |
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