Making "Scents" of Scents
February 3, 2009
Gas up the boat, apply the sunscreen, and don’t forget the bug repellent! Not so fast my angling friend. In order to be successful on the water, the ability to mask your scent might just be the most important factor of the day.
Odious Odors
Studies have shown sunscreen, gasoline, insect repellent and other chemicals placed on the skin intentionally or unintentionally can be a serious fish turn off. Yet so many anglers tend to ignore the importance of masking these smells when heading to their favorite fishing hole. The most repulsive odor to date is DEET, which is the active ingredient of insect repellent. Just a small trace of DEET will cause a bass to take flight quickly. Touching a lure after applying DEET will contaminate it. Remember, once you apply insect repellant to your skin, contamination of everything you touch will have lasting effects. Also, soaps comprised with SDS (sodium dodecylsufate) are both repulsive and harmful to a fish’s gills. Another commonly found offensive odor is PABA, the active ingredient of many sunscreens used today.
Smell that Smell
Understanding how a bass uses its sense of smell can improve an angler’s success on the water. Humans have a very strong sense of sight and hearing, and because of that, we easily forget that not all creatures experience the world as we do. Animals like dogs,
and bass, function almost as much through their chemical senses (nose, mouth) as by their sense of sight. Compared to other animals, humans have a very poor sense of smell. Our noses are better used for warming and humidifying incoming air than for smelling.
Bass and other species of fish have superb abilities to sense the chemical activities of their surroundings. For bass, smell and taste represent two major information outlets when monitoring their survival. From sampling prey to avoiding predators, bass are constantly using these senses to gather information they need to survive. “Too many anglers make the mistake of ignoring the power of smell and taste, much less using it to their advantage,” as Dr. Keith A. Jones writes in his book, Knowing BASS The Scientific Approach to Catching More Fish.
Nose Anatomy of a Bass
Bass have two nostrils on either side of the head that lie between the eyes and the upper lip. Water flows into the front nostril and exits the rear. In a chamber beneath the nostrils lies the olfactory rosette, which consists of numerous skin folds called lamellae. This is where the water is chemically sampled. Smell is the only sense in which the sensory message travels directly to the brain without any prior process. In all other senses, such as taste, hearing vibration detection and vision, sensory information goes through at least one processing stage before finally reaching the brain, thus allowing the brain of the bass to receive a pure sensory message instead of a modified version. Bass don’t use their noses for breathing in the same way we do. The nose is used strictly for smelling.
Waters We Fish
Natural water is, in fact, not very clean. Besides containing varying loads of particular matter suspended by turbulence, natural water also holds both minerals and organic compounds actually dissolved in solution. Earthen minerals are constantly being added to and subtracted from the water column, depending on the water Ph, temperature, and biological action. Dr. Jones also mentions that, living, dying and dead organisms – both terrestrial and aquatic, animal and plant – constantly leak or exclude organic compounds.
Organic compounds in particular can be useful environmental cues for bass. If different areas of the lake display unique smells, it’s possible bass may find this information helpful in finding their way about, especially when visibility is poor. The appearance or disappearance of certain odors during the year can help bass monitor the passing of the seasons as well as alert them to the onset of key environmental events. Such events may include a rain storm, washing nutrients such as bugs and worms into bodies of water drawing bass to inlets such as streams and drainage ditches. These areas are known for setting up home for bass and can turn a poor day of fishing into something to talk about. Hungry bass in search of food rely on prey odors to let them know when food is around, particularly if the odor is also prey specific. Schools of shad, for example, lead bass from place to place on the water by their smell.
The Search
Bass and other fish species go through four stages of a food search. First the bass is alerted by the alluring smell of food. Second, once alerted the bass becomes fidgety and sets out to find its prey, mainly using its sense of sight. Third, the bass spots its prey, and moves in for the kill, often pausing before the strike so it can get a better assessment of its prey. The fourth and final stage occurs when the bass makes contact and accepts or confirms that such prey is actual food and not something that can be harmful such as an artificial lure with sharp hooks.
Fish Attractants
Now that we know how a fish’s nose works and how they go about searching for food, let’s explore the many fish attractants used by anglers on the market today. Anyone who has hunted big game understands the importance of camouflaging ones scent. Hunting manufactures have gone to great lengths to mask a hunter’s scent, including the scientific fabrication of scent blocker clothing. Beginning in the early 80’s, several scent manufactures become very active marketing all types of scent application methods: from aerosol sprays such as BANG, Jacks Juice, waxy applicators called BASSWAX, and water soluble scents such as Smelly Jelly, Mega Strike and Berkley Power Bait just to name a few, all in varying flavors. Such flavors include, crawfish, baitfish, leeches, shrimp, shad, night crawlers and many more. The intent of these manmade scents are to both mask the human scent and draw fish to certain artificial baits by imitating the smell of a specific prey.
Now we have scent-impregnated soft plastics which are easier to use and positive effects are more directly observable. I guess the long and short of scent would be to understand the three main functions fish scents are designed to carry out: To arouse and attract, to cause a fish to hold onto bait longer and to mask negative or offensive odors. Understanding these three functions will without doubt, allow you to put more fish in the livewell.
Perfume for Anglers
Over the years I have learned to include some type of scent masking technique or as I call it, “applying my fishing perfume” into my daily fishing routine. Before I step foot in my boat. I begin by applying sunscreen at least one hour before launching my boat. This allows for the sunscreen to be absorbed into my skin for maximum protection against the suns harmful rays and also allows time for any negative odor I may have encountered such as gas, sunscreen, and bug repellant to dissipate. I’ve established a one two punch for masking any noxious scent that my still be present on my hands and in turn, leaving some type of scent that will attract fish. First, I always make sure to spray B.A.N.G. aerosol onto my hands, this allows me to mask the human scent which gives me confidence to grab for fishing rods and baits throughout the day. B.A.N.G. is comprised of natural concentrated oils of the most prevalent forage species and is 100% biodegradable.
Once I begin to fish, I’ll apply MegaStrike Fish Attractant on all my artificial baits. MegaStrike is created with proteins, amino acids and other secret ingredients known to enhance growth of tissue in a bass and triggers gland receptors in the mouths of fish, causing the fish to believe the bait is real. As mentioned previously, if a fish believes the bait your fishing is real it tends to hold onto the bait longer allowing the angler more time to set the hook. I’ll re-apply both B.A.N.G. and MegaStike on my hands and on my baits several times throughout the day. Not only will this help mask my scent, it gives me confidence that I’ve taken the necessary steps of having a great day on the water.