A potential reason as to why catfish bites suddenly turn off..

[smokehound]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schreckstoff


Catfish release an alarm pheromone called "schreckstoff", which when sensed by nearby minnows and catfish, triggers a flee response.

Releasing a catfish actually might kill the bite for everyone. =)

Goldfish, carp, minnows, and all cyprinids also do this when hooked.

[Ifishtoolittle]

That's kind true actually. I noticed this kind of phenomenon when I was at BBL fishing for Bullheads. Long story short I released the fish I caught on the other side of the dock to distribute them! haha.

[Mr T-rex]

not true because i fished at a little river in los padres national forest and i caught and released over 20 carp in one day

[Marley]

They're slurping up all that dead trout. Why eat shrimp when there's dead trout?

[TheAsianGuy]

Excellent work smokehound. You actually nailed it on the head for nearly 95% of the animal kingdom, including human. However, we're not acutely tuned to the pheromone, so, we have a quick flash of instinctive warning, which we tend to ignore. That's why we seem to die far sooner than the animals we encounter in the wild during survival mode. By the way, the remaining 5% that remains at the extreme top of the food chain don't care. They actually key into the scent, and chase you down. One of which is the tasmanian devil, which I happen to encounter and experienced first hand. The other is the komoto dragon. You can shot it, stab it, trap it, but it still keep coming straight at you. On its dying breath, it will try to eat you.

Lesson is, don't release any large fish in a small water body, since it will affect the other fishes in general. Release a small fish on the other hand will encourage larger fishes to come. Proven fact.

[Arrow]

I wonder if you have fish on a stringer they send signals to other fish "STAY AWAY" LOL

[TheAsianGuy]

Initially, yes. Once they calm down, they actually attract more fishes, either of the same size or larger. This was also studied in one of the universities of Missouri. Forgot which one. They stringed different fish types, then mixed the stringers up. The first 20 minutes, all fishes fled from the area, roughly 10'x10'x3'(depth), including the ones on the stringers. However, after 20 minutes, fishes of the same size and type got curious, and approached the stringers. Let the stringer sits there long enough, you'll get a school.

[smokehound]

not true because i fished at a little river in los padres national forest and i caught and released over 20 carp in one dayIt works better in still water. if a fish bleeds alot, there will be much more shreckstoff exuded.

[itsagooddaytofish]

what the hell

[Sublime-Steve]

lol smokehound you got everyone's brains goin nuts over here..