What scents attract and repel fish?
There are many scents that fish absolutely love and there are many scents that fish can't stand. Here is a quick list of the attractive scents and the ones that repel fish. Attractants: salt, fish slime, fish guts, fish extracts, human saliva. Possible attractants: milk products like cheese, coffee, garlic. Repellents: human skin oils, nicotine, bug sprays, sun screens, scented and perfumed soaps, any petroleum distillates like gasoline, marine grease, oil, diesel........ The author of this article is a FISHING CHARTER CAPTAINon the Treasure Coast of Florida. He has been fishing the grass flats, oyster bars and mangroves all over Florida for more than 40 years. In the article below, we will talk in more detail about how to have a more successful fishing trip by making sure that the right scents are on your lures and fishing lines. Let's get started.
Watch the video below to learn more about the best scents and worst scents for fishing success.
How well can fish smell anyways?
A bloodhound has a sense of smell that is 400 to 600 times better than a human's. That is pretty good right? Well a fish has a sense of smell more than 1,000 times better than a human's.
We've all heard that a shark can smell one drop of blood in an Olympic sized swimming pool. Well most of the other fish species have a very evolved olfactory system too. That is why it is so important to get the smell of your baits and lures just right if you want to have a successful day on the water.
For most fish, their primary sense for finding prey is their sense of smell. Sure many use their eyes, and their lateral lines to find prey but it is the sense of smell that often leads them to food in the first place.Why do you think that fresh dead baits work so well for catching fish? The correct answer is because they smell delicious and keep stinking for a long time.
Scent Trails and Scent Tracks:
These terms are often interchanged with each other but they are the same thing. They are a trail of odor molecules that fish give off whether they are swimming or hiding or fresh dead. These scent tracks let predators track down hidden or far away prey items to eat.
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Fish Repellent Scents:
Have you ever been fishing with that guy that catches all of the fish while you are getting skunked right next to him? You probably thought, "Man that guy is lucky!" NO PROBABLY NOT. His baits probably smelled better than yours did.
Bug spray and sunscreen:
The guy that cuts the baits will often catch more fish than the person who doesn't touch the baits. You on the other hand may have wiped sun screen and bug spray all over yourself and forgot to clean your hands afterwards. That spray kind of sunscreen is the worst because it gets on all of the rods, reels and baits. Don't spray yourself anywhere near the tackle and baits.
Have you ever gotten that bug stuff in your mouth? It burns and tastes awful. The fish don't like it either and will avoid it so you need to avoid getting it on your baits and fishing lines at all costs.
PRO TIP: Wash your hands thoroughly to get the sunscreen and bug spray off of them before you touch anything.
Human Skin Oils:
The natural oils that are created in our skin are a fish repellent. You can't stop your body from producing oil so just be cognizant that fish don't like the way you smell and try to mask it somehow.
Smoking:
Nicotine is a definite repellent for fish so do what you can to keep that smell off of your fishing stuff. Keep the smoking down wind of your tackle if you can. If you are a smoker, then get some fish smell on your smoking hand to mask the nicotine smell.
Petroleum Distillates:
All petroleum and their distillates are a repellent to fish. Common petroleum distillates on a boat are diesel, unleaded gas, motor oil, reel oils and marine grease. If you get any of these things on your hands, make sure to wash them thoroughly before touching your lures or lines.
Scented and Perfumed Soaps:
The rule of thumb is that if it smells nice don't use it. There are pumice based soaps without smell like Lava brand soap that basically scrape all of the smell off of your skin. The bottom line is that if you want to catch more fish make sure your hands don't smell like something that fish hate.
Watch the video below to learn more about how fish use smell to find food.
Fish Attracting Scents:
The best scents for catching fish are scents that will occur naturally in the fish's underwater environment. That is why so many fish chums incorporate fish oils of some sort. They create a great scent track for the fish to follow right up to your boat so that you can catch them.
The moving tide can bring in fish from miles away if the scent track remains constant for a long period of time. This leads me to our first fish attracting scents.
Fish Oils, Fish Slime, Fish anything......
This obviously makes sense. You cover your line and lures with a smell that occurs naturally and one that the fish like. If you don't have any fresh dead fish or fish oil on your boats then remember that artificial fish attractants work very well too.
Artificial Attractants: GULP products are some of the stinkiest things in the world but fish love them. Another great product is Pro Cure scents. You can choose from shrimp, mullet and all sorts of other scents. It is a sticky viscous substance that will last for a couple dozen casts before it needs to be reapplied to your lures.
Many lure companies add real bait fish to their lures and salt to help attract the fish.
*I am not sponsored by any of the brands that I have mentioned in this article. They are products that I like and use so I am telling you about them too. I am sure that there are other comparable brands besides the ones that I mentioned.
Human Saliva: For some reason human saliva seems to attract fish or at the very least help neutralize any repellent scents on your baits and line. Make sure to moisten your knots with spit before you cinch them down to help you catch more fish.
Potential Fish Attractants:
Coffee:
Hardcore bass fishermen have sworn since I was a little kid that plastic worms and other baits that are stored in coffee grounds will get more bites. It may just be a case where the coffee scent neutralizes a repellent scent from the baits. OR bass like coffee too. There is anecdotal evidence that coffee works and it is not seen as a repellent to fish. So maybe it is worth a try.
Dairy Products: I had a guy tell me one time that he ran out of bait when he was snook fishing so he hooked a piece of cheese on his line. He sent the cheese out where he thought the snook where and caught a nice one using the cheese as bait.
I never fully believed the story but when I looked it up there were many tales of cheese attracting and catching fish. So the next time that you are out of bait and eating cheese at the same time, then it is worth a try, right?
Garlic:
This is another one that has anecdotal evidence that it attracts fish or at the very least neutralizes odors that can repel fish. I guess it is worth a try if you happen to have some garlic around on your boat. It might be a good way to get the smell of sun screen or bug spray off of your hands.
The bottom line is that an attractive or neutral scent profile is better than a negative scent profile. Do everything in your power to not let any smells on your lures and lines that fish don't like. This will lead to a lot more hook ups. I guarantee it.
Neutral Fish Scents:
Human Urine: Human urine has been found to have no repellent effects on fish. It seems counter intuitive but if you got a whole bunch of sun screen or bug spay on your line and lures, then peeing on them might actually help you catch more fish. Alcohol: Alcohol is another substance that doesn't seem to repel fish. So again, if you got a whole bunch of sun screen or bug spay on your stuff then maybe you should pour some beer on them to neutralize the bad smells. You might get yelled at for wasting beer but you might also end up catching more fish. There is anecdotal evidence that both urine and alcohol odors don't repel fish but I would only use them as a last resort if your lines and baits have been contaminated with repellent scents of some sort.
Conclusion:
There are many scents that fish love and many that they hate. The key to catching a bunch of fish is avoiding the smells that they hate. It is better to have a neutral scented presentation than to have one that makes the fish swim away. The best baits are natural ones like live bait or fresh dead bait. If you don't have access to live or dead baits then the new artificial scented baits work great. I have used Berkeley GULP baits for many years and they will definitely out fish an unscented bait every time. Just remember when you go fishing next time that fish use all of their senses to catch their prey. If you can present them with a bait or lure that smells good, looks good and feels/sounds good to the fish, then your odds of catching them will go way up. Your fish catching will definitely increase if you make sure to use lures that don't smell bad to the fish that you are targeting. If you enjoyed this article and would like to receive a how to fishing article emailed to you every week, then you should sign up and get on our email list now. You will get a new article sent to you every week. Sign up below.
