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| I was wondering if anyone uses a scent on their muskie baits? When you see a fish following a bait it always makes me wonder if an added scent might make a difference in closing the deal. Especially when you see one coming in with the gills flared and looking like it is really hungry. I bought one to try this year, but I have not been fishing for these toothy critters long enough to know if it is making a difference or not.
I would really like to hear from someone that has kept a detailed log and could see a pattern between use and non-use of added scent. |
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Posts: 4053
Location: Land of the Musky | I used to use it on my bass baits and it seemed to help. A little easier to figure that out with bass though as you don't have to fish hours and hours to catch one
Edited by tacklebooty 2/17/2008 1:03 PM
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Posts: 32886
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Muskies don't have as highly defined sense of smell as bass and walleyes, and are primarily sight feeders. I don't think scent makes much difference, and in fact proved several times you can catch a muskie on a lure dipped in gasoline. |
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Posts: 2427
Location: Ft. Wayne Indiana | I agree with Worrall. Muskies are either going to hit nor not hit. Musky fishing is pretty cut and dry. They are going to eat or they are going to follow. Scent won't make a difference. I wouldn't waste my time with the mess. And since most baits are hard, the scent would be gone very quickly. Also with repeted casts and moving throught he water the scent would be gone pretty quickly. |
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| I have to disagree with Steve W and Mike H on this one... I think scent does matter and have at least proven it does not hurt... At a minimum it can cover up human and unnatural smell and I believe it will gain you a few fish occasionally.
John
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Posts: 51
| Adding scents to bucktails is the reason I'm replacing some flashaboo and bucktail today. The oils must have stuck everything together and I can't get the stuff off. |
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| When you reshaft those bucktails add a piece of felt in line as a scent pad. Land O Lakes makes buck tails already rigged like this as well.
John |
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Posts: 1270
| I have been involved in some labarotory test on the effectivness of scents on various species of fish. Catfish and Carp ar extremely scent orientated. Catfish actually have "taste buds" though out there skin! Trout rank a little below catfish and carp but are still very scent orientated as are walleyes. Bass are less worried about scent and northerns and musky pay basically no attention to scent. I don't think that scents will hurt anything but I also don't know if they will really do anything for muskys.
One would think that scent might be the tipping point to get a musky that is following to strike but research has shown that that isn't really the case. |
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| If a fish will hit on gasoline it will pretty much eat anything I guess (by the way who was fishing with a gasoline lure?) I was just wonderig if it might turn a negative fish or a low slow follow on a little more if it sensed some pheromones? It would obviously take an in depth study to really tell and I haven't been able to turn anything like that up on the internet.
MN_Bowhunter have you noticed a differnece between your sucess and that of a boatpartner?
I've also heard that if you put a gel behind the lip of a crankbait it will last for a relatively long time.
For those of you that use scent what do you prefer?
I've also heard that the scent dispersion will help because a school of minnows that is being threatened will release a lot of pheromones. So it may not matter if it is still on the bait, but that it is in the water and the surrounding predators sense that there is food to be had.
Thanks for the input!
Edited by muskydeceiver 2/17/2008 2:01 PM
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| Reelman, I was typing my response when you posted your response. That is interesting. |
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Posts: 2427
Location: Ft. Wayne Indiana | John,
Cover up human scent??? Have you ever seen a musky eat??? They come FLYING in at 90 mph and smash their food. I highly doubt they care much that I touched my lure. Look at what they eat...bucktails that LOOK NOTHING LIKE anything I have ever seen in the water. Topwaters that sound nothing like anything I have ever heard...etc...
Sure it might not hurt...but it won't help either, so sounds like a waste of time to me. |
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Posts: 32886
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | And why would a Muskie be 'concerned' about human scent? What scents might be considered 'unnatural'?
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| Mike,
Yes I have seen my share of musky eat. Many long before you were on top of the musky world... Steve and Mike- do you have scientific facts to back you up on this one? Or just personal experience? Well I have had positive personal experiences and will keep using scent. Reelmans response got me interested in where I can find the actual scientific data that shows how pike and musky react to scent. Does anyone know where this can be had? I have seen trips/tournaments where scent seemed to make a difference in a boat scoring big several times or coming away with a goose egg. Lastly unnatural scents to me would be bug spray, gasoline, etc. Scent is not the be all end all... But it is a tool I will continue to use based on my experiences with it.
John |
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Posts: 32886
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Esocids use their sense of smell in feeding less than other fresh water fishes, and Pike according to some studies more than Muskies. I remember seeing some research that Pike can; but do not always, survive when blinded but Muskies appear to be even less able to feed when blinded. I'll see if I can find some reference documents for you. I know I've read about this in several sources.
http://books.google.com/books?id=ttiYPWa4YPAC&pg=PA12&lpg=PA12&dq=e...
I'd think that many things we assume are negative or positive 'scents' neither attract or repel Muskies, and that for more reasons than strictly the olfactory . I'd also suggest many products sold to us as fish 'attractants' are more effective attracting us than the Muskies.
But if attractants offer confidence, then have at it, anything that helps us fish harder IMHO isn't a bad thing.
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Posts: 880
Location: New Berlin,Wisconsin,53151 | I reworked a couple of baits that had a crack in the hard coat and was wondering if the smell of the sealer would be picked up? So from what Steve is saying that a spray of Baitmate or a WD wouldn't matter. I was also thinking of putting a sponge soaked in baitmate above the split ring on a few of the glidebates to see if that makes a difference. This would allow you to put a scent trail back from a suick, undertaker or phantom.
I guess that I've been watching to many shark shows lately....we need open water!
Bruce |
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| No scientific data or anything, but I do have a friend who caught two muskies this summer on Turkey Liver at night fishing for cats. I see both sides of the arguement and why a muskie would pick up a chunk of liver off the bottom is probably an intirely different response than the boatside strike out of nowhere, but who knows they have the brain of a FISH! |
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| I was at the Bass Pro last spring and "Gulp" was there with a huge display that you could walk through and it talked about the different levels of reaction from fish to scent. I was supprised to see like stated ealier that Muskie was around the bottom of the list. I asked one of the guys if they had done any studies with thier product and Muskies and he said he didn't know of any and didn't think they had any plans for developing there product for Muskies. Of coures he said it certainly wouldn't hurt to use their product. LOL
I don't really have enough knowledge of Skies to have an opinion but dragging a piece of Gulp behind my lures has been crossing my mind for a while.
So I guess if Gulp isn't to focused on promoting thier product for Muskie there must be a reason?????
Muskie4Life |
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Posts: 2427
Location: Ft. Wayne Indiana | why would you be surprised that muskies would be at the bottom of the list??? They feed based on sight and feel, not smell. They have those big teeth for a reason, to grab ahold of thier meal when they come flying in at 90 mph and smoke it. Their not smelling it....then swimming up to it...then grabbing it. They are not crusing on the bottom of the lake looking for things to suck up off the bottom. They are muskies not Catfish and Carp.
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Posts: 135
| I like to add a little orange cheeto dust to my baits before they hit the water. Don't tell anybody...:) |
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| Sharks feed heavily based on smell and yes I realize they are completely different from muskies. I am simply responding to Mike's observation on feeding habits. I think I heard on the Discovery channel they can sense a drop of blood dispersed in an Olympic style swiming pool. Sharks come in, and preform a type of sneak attack on their prey. I think the most amazing video I have ever seen is the Great Whites off the coast of South Africa that will completely launch their bodies out of the water when they attack seals. Not exactly smelling it.........swimming up to it.............then grabbing it. Again, I realize they are completely different, I was simply responding to Mike's statement. |
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| Mike
For someone high in the world of musky, why would you be so closed minded. How do we know if by adding some scent the fish that followed a bucktail, with its nose in the bait, wouldnt get hot because of it. Really think about it. We cant figure what do on a day to day basis not to mention what they are thinkin.. So lets say that by adding some scent you may catch 2 or 3 more a season, or better yet the one you needed in a tourny. If nothing else we all do goofy things because one time it helped or after we did something, spit cope on your lure ect.. we caught a fish. Face we all are Freaks...
AL
Waiting for soft water!!! |
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Posts: 4080
Location: Elko - Lake Vermilion | I don't think Mike's being closed minded, he just knows the feeding habits of muskies and the FACT that they DON'T have a very good Smeller
They don't smell to find their food.... period..... Heck Ray Charles can see that.
Jerome |
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| I agree with Muskybudda. Mike is being closed minded. And yes at times muskies are on the move and just clobber baits and attack anything. I'll agree during those times scent may not bring anything to the table. But how about a neutral fish following a bucktail closely....? Could the scent on the lure be just enough to put it over the edge and eat? How about the possibility of it turning a short striker into and eater? I think scent can certainly bring a few "over the edge" during tough times.
John |
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Posts: 742
Location: Grand Rapids MN | Personally the time it would take to screw around and add scent and re-add every so often I would rather have keeping a lure in the water. Besides that I've bought scents before to use for walleye fishing and have had bad experiences with it ruining lures so I wouldn't chance it on $15-25 lures. No one said it couldn't help they're all just saying it's so unlikely because of the muskies nature and physiological makeup that it's not worth the hassel. |
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Posts: 2427
Location: Ft. Wayne Indiana | I understand your thoughts...but then how do you explain this...
About 20 times a season we will have muskies follow our suckers around...just to follow them. They are either usually 2-4 feet behind the sucker just swimming around with it. No intentions of eating it...just following it just like they lazily follow in a bucktail or any other type of bait.
Now what could smell more natural than a real live sucker swimming around!!!!! |
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Location: Illinois | I spray all of my lures with Drakkar-Noir before each cast. During tough post frontal conditions, I'll dab a little Dulce & Gabbana near the "nether regions" of my minnow baits (especially on ones with the red anus) because as we all know, the way to seduce a musky is through a scented anus! :P
ps- it's not right to call someone "close minded" just because they disagree with you
Edited by muskellunged 2/18/2008 12:20 PM
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Posts: 32886
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | As I said, if you have confidence scenting your lures, have at it. Does it make any difference for Muskies? Not in my experience ( and I tried it, ALOT...)and not by any measure that I can find. That's not closed minded, that 's just what I've been able to find out. |
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Posts: 1504
Location: Oregon | I would imagine some of the concerns with human scent got started with salmon fisherman. Out here in Oregon most guides use latex gloves while handling lures. The thought is that our hands give off certain odors resulting from proteins that are similar in nature to those found on other predators like sea lions. The gas idea came from a guy testing various scents while salmon fishing with an underwater camera and the scent that turned out best in the test? Bilge water....full of old oil, gas, etc.
Unlike musky, however, salmon use their sense of smell to navigate back to their place of birth which may be a distance of hundreds of miles so it makes sense that they would be far more sensitive to odors than sight oriented species like pike and musky. Out here alot of guys believe in washing their lures in lemon joy before using them and many will keep a bucket with a bit of soap in it to remove human scent periodically. When using kwikfish we often "wrap" a small piece of sardine on to the lure with thread which gives the bait a nice "natural" odor. Here is a picture of one with a wrap on it: http://steelheaduniversity.com/images/elasticstart2.jpg. I will add that for "salmon", wrapped lures consistently outfish those that are not.
As for pike and musky, I would tend to agree with those that claim musky are far less scent oriented. Species like catfish, are often found in turbid waters and feed near the bottom under low-light conditions and thus require an additional method of finding food, smell. Musky on the other hand will feed at all levels of the water column and rely more heavily on their sight, ambush, speed, and a large crushing mouth. And this is what makes them so cool!!
Jed V.
Edited by RiverMan 2/18/2008 12:29 PM
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Posts: 100
Location: Bemidji/Cass Lake | Well if applying scent makes you feel better then do it. If you feel it helps you get an inside edge, hey why fight about it then? Being closed-minded is not what any of these guys are being, just simply stating, and catering to what a muskie primarily keys on when eating. I'm not a big "magic" bait fan. I tend to believe properly presenting to the location is what is most important. Obviously type of bait effects what that might be, but I don't get into color schemes all that much, much less scent. As they say, these are ambush type predators, they aint gonna mess around when they're ready. During a follow it may look like there may be a way to trigger a fish more often with something such as scent, but how well you know the "tricks" of the figure 8 will go alot further. The more successful guys doing this are able to trip more fish at boatside than others. Vision and vibration are the centerpiece. Like anything, practicing technique is THE only answer to getting better at anything. Magic items are for World of Warcraft. BUT, I'm always on the side of playing to your confidence, you do whatever gives you that.
Later
Sackett |
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| Thank you Steve. That is all I wanted to hear. Someone that I would say is trust worthy coming out and saying they have used it and giving their opinion on whether they thought it helped or not.
Mike I appreciate your opinion, but I wanted to hear from people that had used it extensively or see some studies that had been done
Edited by muskydeceiver 2/18/2008 1:16 PM
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| i have experimented with it way back when...and i don't think it makes enough difference to justify the cost/time etc to put it on....could it get you a couple more bites a season...maybe...but is that really worth the hassle to deal with it? not in my book..sure it might cause a following musky to bite the bucktail...but I think it's more of a waste of time and money..but if you need that one extra bite per season have at it... |
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| I don't have a boat and I don't get to get out much. I will take any advantage I can get if it means one more strike and possibly one more fish. Especially if the one it makes a difference on is the really smart old female swimming around that has seen everything chucked at her. If a couple seconds every once in awhile means I get hooked up with Bertha I will do that little bit extra. |
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| it's all about confidence. If you "think" it will get you one more bite, great use it.
i don't think there is any real proof it could hurt. |
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Posts: 92
Location: chicago | I was fishing with my buddy and a 11 year old kid one time. We were fishing on a clear water lake x in wis casting for muskies. The kid was soaking the bait in the land o lakes scent. When he casted the bait it hit a log that was barely touching the water. When we drove towards the shore to unhook the bait the oil was leaking in to the water.As my buddy tried to unhook the bait a 40inch or bigger pop its head right by bait out of the water and scared the #*#* out of him. That has always made me wonder if the fish saw the lure hit the log that never hit the water or was it the oil??? |
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| the only benefit I see in adding scents to baits is to mask scents like bug spray or gasoline that have found their way to the baits.
It's hard to argue with the pros who fish from a clean boat and fishing platform, but most of them have not had the pleasure of sub-par rental boats with leaking gas tanks. |
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| ...I don't think it is as important with an aggressive fish, but the fish sniffing the back of your lure makes you wonder. |
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Posts: 2015
| How different is a Pike's olfactory system than a Muskie?
I honestly never use scent on my Muskie lures.....but big pike LOVE dead ciscoes ...I catch them in VERY dirty water in the spring....they are definitely using sense of smell…those muskies that love to “taste” your bait MAY just succumb to a bait that smells “good”?
Edited by IAJustin 2/18/2008 3:09 PM
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Posts: 1270
| There are alos scents that will make a fish turn away and try to get aways from the scent as fast as possible. One of these scents I tested was a rather well known scent for the bass market so maybe adding scent, if it's not the right scent, will actually DECREASE your catch. |
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| Would you mind expanding on what you found? Secents tested, baits used with scent, time of year, etc.....which one you found to turn fish away..... |
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Posts: 273
| I am in the camp that scent doesn't do much good when muskie fishing. The one thing it may do is ad a little flash or leave a oil trail. I know people who spray WD-40 on smelt for winter pike fishing. Maybe the oil trail looks like scales falling off the bait which is a sign of stress and in turn triggers a strike. |
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| It's amazing to me sight is OVER EMPHASIZED by many. We'll all pay sixty bucks for a custom painted glider with eyelashes but scent gets tossed right out. I'd rather have a lure that smells than a paint job by picasso. It's hard to make the argument that fish are 100% sight feeding 100% of the time and simply make up there mind to smash a bait when everyone's worried about the scale count/square inch or the number of spots on a glider or twitch bait. As soon as a master marketer waves the magic wand, whispers in a few key guys ears that scent is god and lets sell it, watch how fast is becomes the new 'must have.' All-rubber baits were laughed at when they first came out...too goofy looking, too fragile etc etc. That Big and Tasty with #10 blades from Rollies has been around a good while, so has Marv's Tandem with #10's. Momentum and magic thru marketing. Guys get fish on them, guys get talking, guys get selling and the rest is hi$tory. Doug Johnson said it best about fluoro leaders...as soon as money can be made off blaze orange wire leaders, the band wagon will load up. I doubt any of the guys who think scent will work in their boat will scrap the idea because of what the pros tell the joes on the interweb. Personally, unless I'm tripping over a bottle on the deck I cant be bothered, but dismissing scent as an added edge is silly in my mind. We need gill slits, eyelashes and freckles on a bait but scent goes right out the window? I think the big picture might be a little out of whack. Who knows why a fish puts its mouth on your lure. If a fish has its nose on my bait I hope it's smelling/tasting it rather than admiring the brush strokes. Who knows if scent hurts, helps or does nothing? Its just another piece of gear some guys carry and some guys don't. |
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Posts: 1270
| muskydeceiver, I can't say to much as much of that information is quite confidential and our company has spent millions of dollars on it and we don't really care to give it away if you know what I mean!
What I will say is that the tests are done scietificlly and very strict as far as quality control, it's not just going out fishing with a scent sprayed on the bait and saying that it's great or not great.
I also will not comment on other companies products as to do so would not be proper IMHO but safe to say some of the scents out there do nothing and some even are worse than nothing. FYI did you know that the taste budd of a bass is to small to allow a salt molecule to enter it? What this means is that a bass can not taste salt in a posative or negative way. Yet many, many companies continue to put salt in there plastic baits. Salt ca do other things in these plastics such as wiegh down the bait more than regular plastic so the sink faster but most companies who put salt in claim it is for scent.
And who is the one who ever thought that fish would like the taste of garlic of banana??? Are we fishing Italian or monkey fish? Those scents appeal to the fisherman more than the fish, not saying that they don't work sometimes but come on banana! I actually watched one test where a bass was fed a bait sprayed with a popular garlic scent. The bass spit the bait out so fast you wouldn't think it was possible. When we put a different bait in the tank sprayed with the same garlic scent it actually coward in the corner! I mean it raced away and tried to stay as far away from the bait as it could, I'm surprised it didn't try to jump out of the tank!
One thing I will also share is that in all of these tests it was found that northerns and muskys had 0 response from the scent, niether posative or negative.
IMHO what this means to the musky angler is that scent really doesn't matter but I still believe that if you have more confidence using scented bats you might want to continue as I believe if you have more confidence you will fish the bait harder and catch more fish. |
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Posts: 580
| Well for those of you who want PROOF that scent DOES NOT work, good luck. Straight from the mouth of Roger Clemens on Capital Hill, you can't "prove a negative".
I also experimented with scents back in the day, and to be honest, I didn't think it did a darn thing but stink up my hands and boat and make a mess of everything. But for those who are willing to put up with the mess and stink for the chance that it might get them a few more bites, have at it and more power to you. As said above, its all about confidence. |
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Posts: 298
| I've tipped my bucktails on occasion with powerbait or gulp twisters and haven't noticed anything positive or negative. They stay on and there's little maintenance. Can't hurt I guess. Forget those sprays and gells.
I've experienced the live sucker follows MH mentioned above. If they don't want those babies; their just not biting. The best is when they hang out around the sucker for 1/2 an hour of angler torture. |
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Posts: 8782
| I tried garlic flavored spike-it on the tails on a couple of my bulldawgs. (more for the color than the scent though)
Both of them had the tails ripped off in the first hour, but both tails floated up some distance away. Could mean one of three things. (I'm leaning towards #3.)
1. Muskies don't like garlic
2. Smells good, tastes bad
3. They probably were dink pike, and the scent had nothing to do with it at all |
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Posts: 376
Location: Lake Vermilion Tower, MN | In my 20 plus years of guiding I have had the opportunity to fish with a large number of "Big Time"
bass pros. None of them ever used any type of added scent to their lures, hard or soft.
When I ask one of them his opinion on the scent thing he said, they make alot of money for the bait companys, but other than that they aren't worth a dam.
I have also on many occasions out fished
clients who were using scent on their baits. I have to agree with Mike H on this one. I doubt a Muskie, or Pike for that matter, gives a hoot about smell.
Not scientific perhaps, just based on 40 years of fishing experience.
"Ace" |
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Posts: 906
Location: Warroad, Mn | Scent on lures probably doesn't make much difference when casting as you really aren't giving the scent any time to disperse. I suspect that all fish use scent to some degree, some a lot and some not so much. The biggest problem with using scent in casting is the the scent is in the last spot you casted, and not in the one you are casting to.
Muskies like pike will eat a dead cisco laying on the bottom, but that's after the cisco sets in one spot for a while and has a chance for the scent to disperse. It takes a while for fish to find things that smell.
Doug Johnson |
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Posts: 129
Location: Milwaukee Wi | ok than i got a question why is it illegal to have wd40 on your boat i had a dnr warden search my boat he dident find any but i guess people were putting it on musky baits???? |
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Posts: 1185
Location: Wishin I Was Fishin' | Gulp dries up and then it is really hard to get off hooks. I use Powerbait. I even had bag of Gulp get moldy inside. I like a contrasting color of Powerbait on my bucktails. |
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Posts: 8782
| Hey babyboo, I think that might be more of a pollution issue than some fish catching secret the DNR doesn't want you finding out... |
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Posts: 129
Location: Milwaukee Wi | Ya ill tell you what he wasent messin around!!!! |
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| MikeHulbert - 2/17/2008 2:10 PM
John,
Cover up human scent??? I highly doubt they care much that I touched my lure. Look at what they eat....
I agree as Hulbert where's them jelly bracelets day in and day out and still catches fish.. Them bracelets gotta be carrying some excruciating funk!!
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Posts: 1247
Location: On the Niagara River in Buffalo, NY | In past years I've more then once have rubbed musky slime from a fresh caught & released muskie on the crankbait on the other side of the boat and have soon after caught a musky on that lure. Could have been because the muskies were just realy active at the time and I could have caught a fish on any lure in the water. But again it has happened enough times after doing it,that I do it because I think it works. I have tried soaking musky lures in Walleye Slime left over in the bottom of the livewell and that did not make a difference. But for Walleye WD-40 sprayed on spoons has always worked for me for some reason.
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Posts: 129
Location: Milwaukee Wi | So people do use wd-40 as an attractant!!!! |
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Location: SE Wisconsin | whit65 - 2/18/2008 10:56 AM
I like to add a little orange cheeto dust to my baits before they hit the water. Don't tell anybody...:)
Me too! God. . . Me too.
You know, I had a hard time getting over a friends experimentation with that oily garbage in my boat last year. He sprayed it on everything and the vinal seats and inner walls were greased up bad! All his baits stunk to the point I almost couldn't handle it. . . Smelled like a fish cleaning house. All his bucktails were lubed and made a mess of everything. I think that smell was stuck in my nose for days afterwords. . .
Edited by Sam Ubl 1/16/2009 10:34 AM
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Location: Oregon | Bayboo_baits - 2/22/2008 3:49 PM
So people do use wd-40 as an attractant!!!!
WD is very popular out here on the west coast for salmon and steelhead. You will hardly find an angler that doesn't use it............fish really like it.
RM |
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Posts: 145
| Doesnt it all come down to confidence anyway? If you catch one with a bait or just think that it gives you an advantage you have more confidence. That in turn will make you use it on more lures which increases the odds that you WILL catch a fish on a scented lure. Then again I have never used scent...... |
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| Last year I thought I'd give it a try when I saw Doc something's muskie juice at the store. With most baits, soft or hard, the juice does not last more than 3-5 casts. The dozen times I squirted some juice on, no fish caught and no follows. The thing I really did not like about it was like others said - that #*#* ruins any skirt material besides rubber. Needless to say, I don't plan on using it again. |
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| Mike Hulbert,
I have looked online and couldnt find it anywere,
do muskies really move at 90 mph? |
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Posts: 2015
| "do muskies really move at 90 mph"
No - I think Mike was making a hyperbole to make a point |
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| I have seen some very interesting video shot of muskies following baits being trolled, for hundreds of yards, some act as if they are tasting/smelling the baits.
imo, with reaction strikes of course they are not smelling, but what about the ones that follow a bait from the time it hits alllll the way to the boat, we've all had those follows right?
again, making blanket statements only closes your mind to what really may be happening, I'm not saying scents do or don't work, or that muskies do or don't use their sense of smell whatever that maybe be....but again, there is video proof muskies can and do follow trolled baits for a very long time, some hit, some don't.
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Posts: 8782
| Brad, in regards to that I think they're following and WOULD eat if that lure made any sort of escape move, sped up, or changed direction. But since the bait just keeps on swimming the same way it was it never quite triggers that feeding response. Not saying scent would never ever make any difference, but I don't think (for muskies anyway) it offers any real advantage. I also don't think it will hurt anything, either. |
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Posts: 434
Location: searchin for 50 | A very good article in the DEC/Jan issue of Musky Hunter on trolling and video. The guy says in his article that powerbait definately helps. Thats trolling mind you not casting. I am up in the air about this one. I have tried scents off and on. Could never prove or disprove anything. For casting I think Dougj is spot on about casting. The scent isn't going to be at the next spot your casting to.What about the followers who have their mouths open looking like they are trying to suck your bait in. Maybe they are just trying to taste it. I guess thats why its so fun to chase these fish. I do know one thing Fish don't read books. Scent can't hurt so why not try it?
Edited by Raider150 1/17/2009 9:06 AM
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Posts: 909
| sworrall - 2/17/2008 12:16 PM
Muskies don't have as highly defined sense of smell as bass and walleyes, and are primarily sight feeders. I don't think scent makes much difference, and in fact proved several times you can catch a muskie on a lure dipped in gasoline.
Steve, I was wondering if you ever tryed any fuel additives? You know, STP, Quicksilver, or maybe even a NOS setup on a Weagle or something...LOL That may be just what it takes to turn a sniffer into a taker!
Brian |
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