Episode 1293 What? Walleye CAN'T Hear Sonar!

0:00Oh boy, 32 feet yesterday and today can fish detect sonar? This is in through the outdoors and I'm your guide, Jason Walter. Dr. Jason Health and the technological angler has an answer. You may not agree with his answer. The good doctor posted his answer on Facebook saying, Before I answer, let me remind everyone that I'm an actual card carrying scientist. I earned a PhD in chemistry from the U of M 30 years ago and have spent my entire professional career collecting, processing, analyzing and drawing conclusions from data. Here's what biological and behavioral science says about fish detecting sonar. In a word, no. The vast majority of fish cannot detect the typical sound frequencies in use. It's been well established by over 50 years of dedicated scientific inquiry that most fish cannot detect sound frequencies higher than two or three kilohertz. Keep in mind the lowest available frequencies on common 2D sonar is 50 kilohertz. This is very much like a dog whistle. A dog whistle creates sound, but sound with a frequency that is too high for you to detect.

1:04You can't hear it, but your dog can because the whistle sound frequency is well inside its detectable range. This is like sonar for fish. Yes, sonar is a sound, but its frequency is outside most fish's detectable range. 2D sonar to forward-facing sonar, fish cannot detect them. What kind of sounds can they detect? No frequency noise, running outboard motors, trolling motors, even dropping a box of lead jigs on the floor. High frequency sonar can not. That's what over 50 years of biological and behavioral science teaches us. I told you, you might not agree with his answer. Can't argue with science. I'm Chase and Walter and that's in through the outdoors. Be safe and thanks for listening. You'll find over 1200 ITTO episodes with every topic about walleye, archived on my YouTube channel at Chase and Walters, in through the outdoors. And check out between hook sets Wednesday nights at 7 p.m. Central.