Using scents

[rippinlips]

Reading an old book on Steelies the other evening and the author loved using scent as an attractor. He stated 1/3rd of a steel's brain is tied to its' sense of smell. 5K times stronger than ours! Does anyone use scent on a regular basis? If so, do you have a feel for what the difference is in your hook-ups on scented vs non-scented offerings???

[DaveP]

I've never done a controlled study, but I suspect there is something to this, within some limits. I've never used artificial scents, and generally speaking, the few times I've seen someone use them on-stream, they were fishing non-holding water. This could have been due to lack of familiarity with the water or an inability to read the water ..but they weren't catching fish. Egg sacks. I doubt anyone is going to question the effectiveness. Is it the color? Size? Scent? ..probably all three. I've seen days where beads out-fish sacks, but not *too* many.

In my mind, we're dealing with an adversary in seriously cold water. It's *far* more important to get the offering close to them, so their brain does the calculation saying "ok, I'm going to take in more calories than I'm going to expend grabbing this." The colder the water, the closer the offering has to be. I've seen more than one day where the fish are hot, hot, hot on sacks .. then turn off like a light. Switch up to a single blue (or other obtuse color) bead and we're back to fish on.

For my experience, there's probably something to the egg scent. But, I'd rather expend energy putting whatever I'm using (fly, bead, sack) within 6" of their nose than worry about making sure something smells right.

[rippinlips]

Well done, thanks!

[Centerpin]

I always use scent when fishing any artificial lure or bait. My biggest reason is the masking of human odors or anything else that smells foreign to the fish.

[rippinlips]

Yeah, that was my original thought, more to the masking of odors that may cause them to shy away from an offering. If they are particularly attracted to a specific scent then I see that as a huge bonus!

[Illinois STEELHEADER]

I have drifted stoneflys that went untouched. in desparation, i put on a waxworm. Fish on the first drift.

Resumed fishing stonefly nymph only. No fish.
Took the waxworm and crushted its goo all over the stonefly nypmh.
fish on the first drift again.

The smell of a waxworm is not to be underestimated. Its one of the most powerful ones I know of besides skein.

[rippinlips]

Sweet!

[GettinJiggy]

krill