If there’s one thing I heard as a kid from my dad and grandpa, it was, “don’t make noise while you’re fishing, son!”
I’ll bet you hear the same thing – or have said it yourself!
But it turns out that the fear of spooking fish by talking or making noise is mostly a myth, and some basic science can tell us why.
So if you want to know if fish can hear you as you talk on the bank or in your boat, keep reading!
Table of Contents (clickable)
Related:
The Science of Sound
Sound travels in waves – and it travels quickly. In the air, it propagates at 767 mph, fast enough that it seems instantaneous until you’re at a fair distance from the source.
If you’ve ever seen the pop of a firework only to hear it a second later, you know exactly what I mean.
At a greater distance, the delay can be dramatic: