While on Vermillion we decided to jump in the lake and actually test some of the baits to see what they sounded like in the water. We tested about every bait in the boxes with some amazing results. The loudest bait that we tested was by far and away the 10" Jake. The second loudest bait we tested was the suick, those hooks clanking together put off some noise. The eagletail was loud, you could actually feel the thump of the blade. The SS Shad was loud too. Bull dawgs look cool but do not make any noise.
We didn't throw many topwaters but it is incredible how quiet they actually are. The magnum low rider is the loudest bait out of the water I have ever heard, but under water you can't hardly hear it. The weagle is not that loud either. It really had me thinking until I realized that I don't have a lateral line.
MuskyDan
While that is definitely good information, I was just wondering how you gathered the info. It sounds kind of comical. Did you jump in and hold your breath underwater while your boat mate fired large lures near your head and then retrieved them? Or did he make a cast and you swam after it as it came in and followed it through the Figure-8?
I am just having fun with this Dan so I hope you didn't take offense because none was intended.
Did you cast the Burt by chance, because it is one of my favorite baits and that would seem to be a loud bait also. If so, how did it compare to the Jake?
Tom
"MuskyDan" said:
It really had me thinking until I realized that I don't have a lateral line.
Exactly! You were using your ears to "hear" the sound of the lures. While muskies do have "ears", they hear and feel with their lateral line. You didn't "hear" anything from the BullDawg but it sure pushes a ton of water. The lateral line detects sound and vibration so something that is not audible to you might feel loud to a muskie.
😯 I can just picture Dan chasing a figure eight. 
I certainly would have followed a copenhagen can had someone thrown one. We did not throw a Burt!!! And Will it was possible to feel some of the baits even without the latteral line. It reminded me of being next to a car that was jamming the base(bass)? Especially with the buldging style bucktails, and the eagletails. The rest of the baits were just noisy. I know it must be true but I can't see how a bulldawg or a jackpot ever attracted a fish other than by visually.
"MuskyDan" said:
And Will it was possible to feel some of the baits even without the latteral line. It reminded me of being next to a car that was jamming the base(bass)? Especially with the buldging style bucktails, and the eagletails. The rest of the baits were just noisy. I know it must be true but I can't see how a bulldawg or a jackpot ever attracted a fish other than by visually.
I don't doubt that you felt something from those, under water since you were hearing with your skeletal system. Sound is simply the change in pressure of the water and it travels in waves. Your ears were basically useless underwater, you could have plugged them with your fingers and "heard" the same thing. Again, you couldn't "feel" what the dawg and topwaters were actually doing. Could you hear the graph on the boat tapping away? How about the fish swimming around you? Could you feel the boat everytime it rocked?
This discussion can get very anthropomorphic, we can't apply anything we know about feeling or hearing to a fish. Simply, what you hear or feel, isn't at all similar to what a fish would feel through its lateral line.
While you were doing this did you happen to pay attention to color?
Hmm…
COLOR!!
Good question, I can't see a bait in clear water more than 15 to 20 feet away. I could hear the jake and suicks long before I could see them.
On the surface the baits looked just like they do out of the water, but under water the baits are a little blurry, I had trouble focusing on them long enough to make out the color but I was close when I guessed.
Did not hear the graph but I don't know that I didn't hear it either.
If you got close enough you could probably hear/feel the transducer on the graph but most likely you would feel it better if you actually touched it. That would be the best analogy for how a muskie uses its lateral line.
When tracking a muskie with Muskie tracker on Thornapple we had to have the graph off on the boat because it was so loud under water. He said that it sounded like a train going by but you actually have to hear it to believe it. It really did sound like a train through the hydrophone.
52
46