Does drilling with an auger spook the school? How long until they recover?
It does, briefly — ice couples sound straight into the water, and an auger is loud down there. Over shallow flats of 2–3 m (6–10 ft) a school typically tightens to bottom or slides off for 10–20 minutes; over a 10 m (33 ft) basin the disturbance is diluted and fish often keep feeding through it. The practical fix is sequencing: drill every hole you expect to need first, then fish back through them in quiet. Schools that were merely pushed usually drift back along the same grazing line they left on.
The full story
This answer is one piece of a longer lesson — setups, diagrams and the reasoning behind it.
More questions about Hearing & Inner Ear
Same topic, other species
- Why does one dropped pair of pliers scatter the whole school? — Crappie
- Do rattles help or hurt? — Largemouth Bass
- Do muskie hear my boat and trolling motor? — Muskellunge (Muskie)
- How well do pike hear? — Northern Pike
- Will talking or footsteps on the bank scare trout? — Trout (Rainbow · Brook · Lake)
- Does boat noise or an ice auger spook walleye? — Walleye