Keeping Plastic Worms Fresh

Chris Stratton, Viola, Illinois: "My fishin' buddy and I have a lifetime supply of our favorite soft plastic worms and some of them are beginning to lose their oils to the bottom of the bag. We thought about putting them in the freezer to make them last. What do you think, or what would you do? Any ideas are appreciated."

Some soft plastics are not in the best Ziploc-style bags and can lose their oils. This can make them harder and they can take a bent, which hurts their action. The best way to keep them fresh is by placing them in good bags and adding oil to them, either the original brand or other concoctions that have some flavor additives to encourage bass to bite and hold on.

Fish Movements

Dr. Jim Thor, Norflok, Nebraska: "I watched some knock-off fishing show a couple weeks back and they insisted that radio-tagged largemouths follow a trail similar to cattle following a trail. I understand seasonal and temperature location for the pike family, but do you have any input on the validity of this theory other than narrows and other forced structure? If it does have validity do you think it may hold true for the pike family?"

First, the large number of tracking studies of largemouth bass have discovered a wide range of behaviors, with some fish scarcely moving for much of the year and others wandering almost constantly.

Bass have shown the ability to navigate across wide-open parts of lakes and reservoirs, seemingly following a compass direction. In this instance, they are not moving like cattle at all, which must follow structure. At other times, however, bass do move along the edges of structure, both when feeding and when making seasonal shifts in habitat.

Far less is known the movements of pike in the many types of habitats they live in. A recent genetic study found that pike did home to spawning areas where they had hatched, and also tended to spawn in the same location year after year. Since pike, particularly large ones, are known to inhabit wide-open areas of lakes and reservoirs, I think it's likely that they also have the ability to navigate across open waters, holding far off the bottom.

The cues for inland fish navigation are thought to be a sun and perhaps moon compass. While salmonids use the earth's magnetic field and scent to navigate, these abilities have not been demonstrated in our common freshwater fishes.

Best Fishes!

Spooky Fish

Chuck Moline, Golden Valley, Minnesota: "Do you have an opinion or do you know of any research that indicates if fishing sonar or electric trolling motors spook fish? I believe you did an article on the subject but can't recall the findings. From a longtime subscriber."

While there's no truly scientific investigation of the phenomenon of fish becoming wary upon sensing the operation of sonar units and/or trolling motors, many experts believe this does indeed occur. This sort of conditioning can occur on heavily fished waters, and the wariest fish tend to be the larger, more experienced fish.

To combat this tendency, anglers often anchor near a spot, turn off sonars and remain quiet for a while to allow fish to return to normal behavior. Striped bass anglers and those targeting trophy largemouth bass have most often reported this type of effect.

Continued -- click on page link below.