As reported in the previous posts, common perch, Perca fluviatilis, do not respond to sounds of the rattling wobblers and glass rattles. In this post, we will show that common zander, Stizostedion lucioperca, ignore sounds of the Ringing Bell System used (or has been used) in the Mepps spinners.

Zander are selected for experiments because these fish, like perch, have the well developed acoustically guided behaviour (Protasov, 1965).

The Mepps Ringing Bell brass system consists of an internal core and an external bell-shaped weight. This system has been mainly used in the Mepps Comet spinners (now these lures are absent in the catalogs) instead of typical cylindrical weights. Mepps Co. writes that sounds produced by the rotating blade and ringing bell attract… "the most hesitant fish”.

According to our field experiments, this marketing course is incorrect.

In these experiments, ringing and ringless 7 gr Mepps Comet Booster spinners of silver color were compared with each other. One half of lures, marked CBR, were intact. In the other half of lures, marked CBL, internal cores and external bells were glued with the waterproof adhesive.

Lures were tested (near the village Nedanchychi, the middle part of Dniepro river, in June) in the shallows, where zander preyed on small fish  (mainly river bleak, Alburnus alburnus) from the evening twilight to deep night.

Figure 1. Juvenile zander, Stizostedion lucioperca

At each estimated locality of zander, 12 presentations (cast and retrieving) of lures were made: 3 with CBR, 3 with CBL, 3 with CBR and 3 with CBL. After the 10-15 min rest, this procedure was repeated in the reverse order. In total, 27 zander were landed for three nights: 12 on CBR and 15 on CBL lures. To estimate mean differences for field data, fish were group per each 6 lure (for CBR and CBL) presentations. In final, zander, according to Student’s t-test, showed no reliable preference in favor of ringing (CBR) or ringless (CBL) Mepps Comet Booster spinners.

Because zander, like other fish, accustom to the repeatedly presenting artificial lures (stimuli) along with the decreasing of their attractiveness (Lescheva & Zhuykov, 1989), three different localities of zander have been used.

There are several reasons that allow to explain why zander ignore sounds of the Meeps Ringing Bell System. For more information, please see the posts mentioned above.

Cast your attention that audiograms of the Mepps spinners, with the cylindrical or hexahedral bodies, is mainly represented by the powerful rhythmic sounds produced by rotating blades (click here to hear sounds). These rhythmic sounds, with the frequency that is equal to the frequency of blade rotation, overpower any other thythmic and noise sounds of the Mepps (and similar) spinners.

Basic References

Lescheva T.S., Zhuykov A.Y. 1989. The learning in fishes. Ecological and applied aspects. Moscow, Science

Protasov V.R. 1965. The bioacoustics of fishes. Moscow, Science