# Scaring fish away....??



## racetech (Dec 2, 2013)

Being fairly new to the sport. I have a issue I seem to deal with a lot. Say your fishing a hole. You hook into one, and regardless of landing it or the fish rolls once and is off, it seems like the hole goes dead. No more action after that. So does that fish scare off the others with its flailing about lol Or is it just that maybe that was the only fish that was in the hole at the moment? How long before you hit up that same spot? Just wondering what you guys go through with this.


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## Bad Bub (Jan 17, 2006)

Sometimes, if you get your bait back to the same spot immediately, you'll hook another. Anytime you have a group of fish, competition will drive them. If you find a large school of fish that are feeding, you can catch on seemingly on every cast when they're fired up. I always make my next cast after a fish right back to the same spot that I got bit. It doesn't always work, but if you continue to do it, you'll be amazed how often it does work.


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## ballast (Sep 15, 2011)

I've seen um on the con,I hooked one and fought it and they just moved a like a foot back. But that's just what I personally witnessed?


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## kapposgd (Apr 10, 2012)

In my experience I've never felt like catching a fish has shut them down. Steelhead are highly instinctive but stupid. If you're pretty sure there's more fish in the hole its time to change up. And like the poster above said, I've also found (especially in cold water) some commotion from a fight seems to fire them up


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## buckeyebowman (Feb 24, 2012)

I suppose that other fish could feel the vibrations from a hooked, "panicked" fish, but as Bad Bub wrote, these fish are competitive! I used to fish a lot of smallie tournaments on the Youghiogheny River in PA. When one of us would hook up we'd try to lead the smallie alongside the boat so that our partner could flip a bait in. This was because we knew there would be a gang of smallies following the hooked fish trying to steal whatever the hooked fish had "caught"! 

I imagine it's much the same with Steelies. If you can read water even halfway decently, you're probably trying to make a presentation to the best lie in whatever hole you are fishing. If the fish you hook gets off, it's still in the river, and will go back to it's old lie. Having felt the hook it, probably, won't bite again for a while. If you catch it, it will take some time before a lesser fish takes over that lie. So don't fish the prime lie. Maybe try some lesser lies and see what happens.

BTW, I've read plenty of trout fishing stories (and Steelhead are trout), and seen it myself, where catching one fish will spook the whole pool! So you could be right! What else can you do but fish?


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## racetech (Dec 2, 2013)

Well good to know some guys have luck after catching a fish in a hole. I just dont, but i havent been fishing steel very long either so maybe its something I will see less of as I find better holding waters.

Funny story. Last spring I was fishing a small stream and hooked a big one. It broke me off and took the bobber with it, so I had a bobber floating on the surface following the fish. That fish went right back to where I had hooked it. Swam around some in the same hole, probably back and forth in a 20 ft area. Observed that for prob 20 minutes, then the fish finally came close enough for me to take a blind shot at it with the net and luckily i netted him and was able to remove the hook and my gear and drop him back in lol


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## Bad Bub (Jan 17, 2006)

I will add in that my experiences are with bass and 'eyes. I've never targeted steelhead, and didn't pay attention to which thread this post was in (my apologies). However, making one or two more casts to the same spot couldn't hurt regardless of what species you're after IMO.


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## creekcrawler (Oct 5, 2004)

One time, years back, walked my crazy dog down to see if my bro' had got anything.
He'd been fishing for over two hours. The dog jumped in and swam around for while.
He caught a few right after that. Seemed like the dog stirred them up and they got active!
We joked that he must have kicked a few trout in the head.


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## ejsell (May 3, 2012)

This fall I watched dozens of fish landed out of the same small hole over the course of three days with 2 and 3 hookups at the same time. In my limited experience, when the hole was loaded they didn't seem very spooky and got very agressive to the point that one guy was landing a fish in the same spot on almost every cast.


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## KTkiff (Jul 30, 2004)

I have fished pa with 100 guys in the river and steelhead hitting your feet. I have also fished in a kayak getting pulled around when fighting a fish and then catching them right where I got pulled around to. Boats have gone by. None of this effected the bite. Trout aren't as spooked as easily as you think. 

This summer I was in Colorado fishing an inlet with constant boat traffic. I caught fish after fish. 


Sent from my iPhone using Ohub Campfire


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