Do you think ATV's scare the fish?

[icemonster]

What's your opinion about the effects of noise from ATVs and vehicle's on the fish. I have caught a bunch of fish even while there were ATVs running all over the place, but have noticed they will avoid crowds. Seems to me the deeper the water the less the fish will be spooked.

[MikeThePike]

In shallow water it does seem to spook the fish but sometimes more than others. Snowmobiles are a totally different story tho.    Especially since they always feel they need to use your tip-ups as cones on a driving course.

[fzrpilot6]

yesterday i had about 8 snowmobiles racing back and forth all afternoon, about 30yds away from my shanty.  ironically it was the best bite of the day for me.  these guys were not putting around either we are talking 80 plus mph.  funny thing is that we dont have snow here so they trailered their sleds to the lake to go back and forth 50 times, doesnt even look fun to me. to each their own.

[icemonster]

I almost allways have my tip ups spread out in a line several hundred yards long, so I usually check them on the 4 wheeler.
I have notice that the people screaming around and spinning cookies, don't seem to catch many fish.

[Mr.Seaguar]

in shallow water the fish swim off when you drive the ATVs close, but they come back in a little while.

[big big rdg]

I think it does affect the bite somewhat but most of the time it isnt really noticable. I drive my sled around near my traps through out the day and seem to do just as good as anybody else. When fishing for salmon/trout I think it does make a difference and I have found less flags when driving around and fishing right below the ice.

[red_eyes]

I think quads and sleds going slow dont do much, but I think the quads and sleds whipping by at 40+ that cause the waves scare em off.

[Mongo]

Every time I leave on the atv to get more food or beer my buddy tells me the bite picks up when I leave.
Either the fish do not like me or the noise scares them off.

[chillywillie]

I think for trout and salmon the best bite is when there is little traffic.  For warmwater fish, I haven't noticed much difference.

[TGF]

Definately scares the burbot around here. Heck even the hum from a Vex will scare a burbot in shallow water.
I think it is much worse in shallow water for sure.

[adkRoy]

I think ATV's and Snowmobiles scare the fish!

[cstolp]

I highly doubt those vehicles are any worse than motor boats.  I seem to catch fish from my boat.

[adkRoy]

I highly doubt those vehicles are any worse than motor boats.  I seem to catch fish from my boat.

Satuday on Lake pleasant we had a yahoo on a 4-wheeler fooling around, zipping in and around other icefishermen and their tip ups, doing wheelies, not wearing a helmet. For the whole time he did this we didn't get any fish, or flags on our tip ups. The only good thing that happened was the Encon officer came over, yelled at him and the guy didn't do that the rest of the day.

[stumper]

Atv's and snowmobiles bother the fisherman more than the fish,There are of course some exceptions to this.For instance,if the ice is to thin to support the vehicle and it falls through and the fish has to move to avoid being hit.Or if the lake has had NO boat or other vehicle traffic within the previous  year or more.In wich case they are then spooked by the presence of the foriegn noise. Watching fish on the camera,someone dragging a plastic sled/shack across the ice spooks the fish more than anything else.If the is more than a couple inches of snow then there is no effect on the fish from the sled noise either.I fished every day ,,ice on to ice off last season and didnt take notes ,but Im sure I would have remembered if I hadnt caught fish on one of those days,especialyy if it was because of a snowmobile or quad.


My 3 cents.

stump

[tarbot]

Every time I leave on the atv to get more food or beer my buddy tells me the bite picks up when I leave.
Either the fish do not like me or the noise scares them off.

I'm going with "The fish do not like me"!   

Oh ya... thanks for leaving to go get beer last Sat.... three flags about a minute after you left!

[Mongo]

Next time you go and get the beer

[Smeltecca]

Sound travels better through the water and ice is frozen water.  The less noise and commotion on the ice the better the fishing will be.  It's possible to catch fish when the lake is real busy but I guarantee the older, smarter, and therefore bigger fish feed when everything is nice and quite.  One of the lakes in my area is like a racetrack on weekend days and it is also the only lake I've ever caught Pike at in the middle of the night.  These fish get lockjaw during the day with all the noise so they feed at night when everything has calmed down.

[pimpmypike]

I just answered this on a different post somewhere the other day.after 30+yrs of fishing I have a different opinion than most and i have the proof to tell you.It seems on a slow day when the fish are spooky and run away from the jiggle of your hook,that will be the same day that a quad etc. drives by and the fish run for cover.
But now heres what happened when the bite was on real hard one day and it did not seem to matter what you had on your hook.We just so happened to have a stereo with us on the day the bite was on for rainbows.Well everytime we turned up the stereo more rainbows would show up.We turned down the stereo and most of the rainbows would leave.We tried this several times just to make sure it was not coincidental and sure enough it worked every time.We also had a propane heater in the shack one day when the rainbows were biting real good.well same thing everytime we turned off the heater the trout would leave.when we turned the propane heater back on,the trout would come back.now you must understand that this was at a lk. where tame trout were being raised in a huge lk that also had wild rainbows.500,000 rainbow trout did,by accident,brake through the nets and swam into the lk free.We have also had times when the trout would run away from noise.So in short.the answer to the question in my humble opinion,is it just depends when you go fishin.thank you ,thank you

[fishman74]

I think picks on snowmobiles scar fish!

[fishfinder24]

I have noticed that on a certain lake I fish for perch-a wheeler or someone dragging by must kick up the fish and cause them to bite.  I can be watching my fishfinder for a long time w/o marking fish but then someone will drag right by me and all of a sudden my fishfinder is goin nuts with fish and so are the rods.  Also the biggest pike I ever caught through the ice-we were picking up the tipups ready to quit.  I walked (not cautiously) over to grab one when the flag went up.  We hadn't had a flag all day but that was a 16pluslb. northern.  I am convinced that the commotion of me walking over caused that fish to take the bait.  These are just a few of my experiences and my 2 cents worth.  I wouldn't go as far to say noise is always good but I don't think it's always bad either.

[icemonster]

I have had the same experience, especially with perch. There really does not seem to be any pattern. Sometimes its seems to scare them and some times it will stir them up and cause a bite.
Also I have caught fish rite after drilling a hole. You would think that would scare any fish.