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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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Posts: 1504
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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