Sound and Rattle baits

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Sound & Rattle Baits

For many anglers, anything that helps catch a few more fish is worth having. Plus, rattles require nothing special from the angler, no special skills or techniques. Add a rattle to a jig, grub, spinnerbait, plastic worm, or whatever and fish it normally. The action of the lure, or the action you give the lure, makes the rattle work. But to make rattles really work, it is most important to understand just what's happening under water, in the bass' world. And it is helpful to understand just how a bass reacts to sound. Rattles can be a boon, but they also can be a bust. First, some facts about water, according to experts on the properties of water and sound:

A remarkable characteristic of water is that it's almost a noncompressible medium. Energy you put in at one point transmits through to another point. This is most easily observed as waves. Once set up, they seem to roll forever.

Noise is a vibration that applies energy to water and creates a wave. This wave travels efficiently through water.

Sound travels 1,087 feet per second through air and 4,717 feet per second through water. This is almost a mile per second.

Scientists believe that whales once could communicate with one another over thousands of miles. Today they can only do so for a couple hundred miles, due to shipping noise.

It is difficult for divers to tell from what direction an underwater noise is coming. Because noise transmits so easily, the sound of an outboard engine seems to come from everywhere. A boat half a mile away seems a loud as a boat 100 yards away.