Can fish smell human scent?

I would like to know what people think about the way fish smell. Do you feel that they can smell humans scent? Do they not react then? Does leaving those ringworm in your old smelly garage have an impact on the smell? Just curious on what other people thought.

I certainly think the smell of gas & oil on your hands has a negative effect on catch rates. It would be interesting to hear from someone who can cite a study.

I also think most of these smells have a negetive effect however I know a guy that was on lake erie with a charter boat and the guide sprayed the baits with WD-40. They caught walleyes like crazy.

hey flick,, there was a time when some buddies and i were out fishing for northerns,,,, we had some old jigs sitting in the back of the boat covered in gas, we were calling them gas jigs,we didnt want to loose any more new jigs so we used those ones,,, they cought just as many fish as the other jigs that didnt have gas on them,,, i know it doesnt say much when i say we were catching northers but thats the way it was for us,,,

First. WD40 uses shark oil as its lub. This can be interprested as an attractant. As for the effectiveness. Depends on the fish. Cats are smell feeders while bass are sight govern. Long story short is yes and no. Clear as mud?
Actually for bass, I have seen certain times where a predator scent like a pike would turn your lure into a usless tool until you re-uped the supply of KnB. This is contrary to all other factors. If its not a predator Bass don ‘t really care.
jc

I totally agree on the Northern Pike scent. If I catch a pike on anything I’m using for walleye, off it goes into the junk tackle pile.

J.

I look at it this way. I can smell fish so they can smell me. I can smell good food so can fish. I can smell spoiled food [something doesn’t smell right] so why shouldn’t fish. Yet I’m not big on fish scents like you would think I would be by what I’ve said so far. There are alot of “Weird” smells in the river, like gas and oil from outboard motors. Sewage, chemicals, etc. I think lake fish are more sensitive to smell as the water system is normally cleaner than a river and they don’t have to “react” to a bait as much as a fish in a river does due to in a lake there isn’t current washing food along like in a river. Just my 2 cents worth.

Fish have not so much as a smell… of the lures in their realm, they have more of a “taste”. The way I understand it, is that fish actually “taste” the odors we as humans can smell. And they can taste in particles per trillion in a degree much more acute than we could taste. Fish use their taste in feeding and in breeding. Many locate each other and their spawning grounds by only taste.

I remember reading that in a test done in a fish-ladder, that salmon would swim past a bear’s paw…but stop advancing up the ladder when a human hand was inserted into the up-stream flow.

My experience has been that when in my teens (I am now in my 50’s) that I would not wash my hands with soap before fishing… (thinking all soap was a turn-off to the fish) rather, I would grab wet soil, grass & weeds from the shoreline to scour my hands… in order to help loose my scent. And it seemed to help in my catches.

Today, I rely on sented baits to aid in masking my scent. Berkley Power and the new Mr. Twister “Exude” formulas seem to work great. I do get worried about them loosing their effectiveness over time, laying inside a plastic box… instead of being sealed in their factory made “pouches”. Check out http://www.scentloc.com to help in that department. These products may even add to the “power” of your formulas while in storage.

All rubber that is not scented (such as the ringworms that I sell in the EFN Outlet) are taken from molds. The process includes not only the many chemicals from which the lures are composed, but also a mold release oil. These mineral oils that are on the plastics help to mask our human scent also. I think of it as “Pam” cooking spray that nothing can stick to in a pan… all over my worm, helping my odors not to stick to the plastics. Remember that every lure that you “open-up” to tie on, has been toutched… tied / assembeled…. painted by… and held by human hands… and may carry many more “tastes” that you did not even add. Lots of smells and tastes for us to think about…. many are negitave, I am sure.

I must rely on colors, flash, and new flavor formulas to over power and mask these negitaves tastes… that seems to be working.

Hawger

Gas and oil….

Gary Nordlie (local fishing educator/guide and friend) dipped a spinner-bait in his boat gas tank and fired it out to catch bass after bass…. the gas on it had no negitave effects.

However, these fish were hungry and aggressive and “sight feeding”… and would have hit anything moving (if they could have, they would have hit a red-hot chille pepper). At times that is just what happens… fish feed from sight alone…. then there are the times that they are not so active…. and need to be coaxed….I think that is when “flavor” gets real important.

Hawger

good post Hawger…… thats exactly how I THINK it works…..
when fish are hitting on site then no problems… when they are “tasting”… then PROBLEM!!!… I usually DONT use scent… but if the bite is slow I will and maybe Im fooling myself but Im pretty sure it helps… but one thing Ive seen for sure is negative reactions to some scents…….

Hey Hawger, Is Gary Still guiding summers at Lake Vermillon?

One of the first things I do when on the water is rub my hands vigorously together in the river water, with no soap! Having fished over 200 bass tourneys I had even grown cautious of holding onto my opponent’s hand rail.

Gary was still guiding there the last time I heard.
Hawger

Hawger,

Cool website! I am certainly going to look into this more. I think this could really build my confidence when pitching plastics. Thanks.

The debate over using scented products still rages amongst fresh water fishermen. The facts are that fish do taste and do have a sense of smell. There are compelling reasons to apply scent to soft plastics and tests have proven that once a fish has the bait and tastes what to them is natural, you will in theory have more time to set the hook. Scented products basically offer two tangible benefits: 1. They mask human odor. 2. They offer a more natural taste to the fish. For more information and articles on this topic, I would suggest referring to studies done by Dr. Loren Hill. He is a Zoologist at the University of Oklahoma and well known for studying the effects of scent on freshwater fish – specifically largemouth bass.

BDobbs – scentloc.com

The other benefit not mentioned yet (that i have seen) is that scents help when using plastics to get them to slide over and in weeds and without sticking as easy. I agree with the active fish-no scent needed, reluctant fish-scent as mentioned above.