Do fish remember your bait?

Fish are not dumb but they won’t remember your face and hold a grudge from last weekend’s catching clinic you put on. But many species can form associations. If a bass experiences repeated negative or harmful events like getting hooked after seeing a certain lure type, sound, or presentation they can become cautious to similar situations. This is the reason heavily fished lakes or areas fish differently than untouched areas. It’s funny, I used to have a strategy on some lakes to fish where everyone else doesn’t.

But there is good news to this. Fish don’t seem to hold this ‘memory’ for long. when given time a bait that they seemed to shy away from can work again another time. There are too many changes in weather, current flow, food availability, seasons etc. that change the situation they associated the negativity with. Fish need to always decide, Is eating worth the risk?