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Location: Southern Ontario, Detroit River and Lake StClair | I was just wondering if many guys use much in the way of scents when it comes to Muskie fishing? I'm a big fan of scents for my Walleye fishing especially in cold water. I never really gave it much thought for Muskie thinking they mainly used sight and vibration to feed. This past weekend we were fishing our usual lake. Water temps were 45-47degrees water clarity was an incredible 12ft, which is almost unheard of in our area. Fishing has been tough the last little while and started off that way Saturday also. We had tried the most natural presentations we could with no luck when my 16 yr old son pulled some Shad (our forage base) based scent from his box and figured he'd see if he could make things more natural. We were casting Mag BullDawgs and he squirted it in the "hole" were the top hook comes through so it stayed on the bait better. 3 casts after.......bam!!! fish on. I thought it was a fluke. that was around 8 a.m. after launching at 6a.m. by noon we had gone 5 for 7 with 3 more follows including one double header. I talked with 3 other good Muskie fishermen fishing the same area and at times fished spots ahead of us and they all had 1 fish or nothing. Was it the scent that made the difference? Dont' know, I'd never used scent for muskie before but I have seen similar results Walleye fishing. Like I said other guys were fishing the same area with the same baits. I'm looking forward to trying it out again this weekend and see what happens. So has anyone else tried scents for Muskie? Notice any difference. Maybe we just got "lucky" I dont know but I'm really trying to figure out what the difference was between us and the other 3 boats in the area.
Thanks
Tim
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Location: Michigan | You sneaky bugger;) |
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Location: Medford, WI | Hey Tim, I'm glad you're not coming to a concrete conclusion that it was the scent in this case. It very well may have been, but hard to tell with just the one case. After netting some ciscoes and rigging them up this weekend, I couldn't believe how much they stink...that got me thinking out on the water and today about scent as well. I used to not really think it could/would do much, but maybe during those super-tough days, that might just give the fisherman a slight edge. Look forward to hearing if you have any results this coming weekend with the scent. Good luck.
-Jake |
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Location: Southern Ontario, Detroit River and Lake StClair | Chadster - 11/9/2009 7:26 PM
You sneaky bugger;)
Didn't really think about it at the time or I would have said something. Like I said above I'm going to give it ago again this weekend and see what happens and I'll let you know.
Tim
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Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Muskies have a very poor sense of smell, so it's unlikely there would be a difference that would be consistent enough to call it the scent that got the strike.
I tried for 5 years to come up with some sort of proof scents do make a difference with Muskies, and couldn't get it done.
Walleyes and bass, however... |
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Location: Michigan | Tim,
In all seriousness... I thought it was me just stinking the place up(or in this case not stiniking...), but if you talked to the other cronies out there and they had similar results as me, I would say that is a pretty strong point of reference.
You guys still may have had some subtleties going on that the rest of us did not present to the fish, but I think this is almost a little bit of science. There is actually some statistical info here...
We are talking the difference of boating compared to not even raising fish. Very curious...
Edited by Chadster 11/9/2009 6:54 PM
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Location: Medford, WI | Yah, I don't think you'd ever really e able to narrow it down solely to scent...as it's impossible to tell. However, they must have a sense of smell for some reason...I think. I'm no biologist by any means...maybe Pointer can give us answers...I want at least a 12-pack in him before the reply though.
-Jake |
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| LOL!! Im sure we'll hear from Pointer soon! |
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Location: Southern Ontario, Detroit River and Lake StClair | Chadster made a possible good point to me earlier in that possibly the fish were almost ready to "go" and the the scent pushed them over the edge....??? One other thing I noticed was that all but one of the fish came less than 1/2 way through the retrieve which was alot different ration than most days when that would have been more along the lines of all but one or two hit at the boat.
Tim
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Location: lake x...where the hell is it? | this season i was fishing the wingra dam and i had a beaver on my bass rod and was pitchin it to the corner for a big bass that i seen. after about 6 trys i felt a strike gave her steel and a 30"ish ski jumped and spit it. i checked my line and bait and pitched it back about 10 more times, notthing. then i went to my bag and got some MEGASTRIKE, i amost always have some on my soft baits and i always say the only bait better then a beaver is a beaver with MEGASTRIKE on it. i have seen first hand that it works bass fishing. so i put some on and first try it hits the bottom and bam a 30"ish fish jumps spits again. i knew that i wasnt getting a good hook set cause i had a 6' 12lb floro leader so i rig a beaver on a 100lb floro and pitch it in the coner and bam ski on with a sold hook set. hand landed about a 32" ski. that was the first of 3 that i got the same way this season all were 35" or less but after blue gills it was the second most produtive bait at the dam this season. i have caught 2 other fish where i am sure scent pushed them over the edge, 1 was a 46". i think that scent can be that edge we need but at best it only matters say 1 of every 50-60 fish so it cant hurt but i think they reley more on vibe and sight more then anything else. |
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