A day in the Fitzroy

[Douglas]

To finish up my thoughts on soft plastics as vibration generators, rember that the theories are constructed in a perfect or ideal underwater world.

We're assuming that there are no other underwater vibrations present. That's the ideal world.

The reality is that the underwater world isn't ideal at all and never will be.

There are many many other sources for the fish lateral lines to pick up apart from our attempts to "make our lures heard" in the cacophony of sounds. Our lures have to stand out to be noticed.

On one of his DVDs, Johnny Mitchell demonstrated what can be heard underwater at night in the Fitzroy mouth with his headphones and Jesus Box submerged beside the boat. Noises everywhere.

I suggested to John later that he should give charter work away and simply sell Jesus Boxes and headphones. Make more money. He countered that it wouldn't be as much fun. Touche'.

Anyway, the lesson is that you've gotta be heard over everything else.

While a plastic lure like the little pink one might work in shallow, clear fresh water with not a lot of background noise (because a barra can use eyes as well as lateral lines to target it), it would be useless in water that had much more background noise and was dirtier.

I'll come back to the subject of "dirtier" water later when I look at colours.

Happy to hear any views others have about this subject.