Fish Attractant Scents

(been saying  this about oil vs. water based scents for a long time.)

MAKING SENSE OUT OF FISH SCENTS 

Facts  About Fish Attractants

Fish scents took the fishing industry by storm back in the 1980s. Fisheries biologist Bob Knopf wrote numerous articles on various scientific topics of interest to fishermen, including the effectiveness, and limitations, of scent products. The following excerpts from this 1987 Fishing Facts article still pretty much stand to this day nearly 40 years later.

🎣 First and foremost, for a scent to work, THERE HAVE TO BE FISH IN THE IMMEDIATE AREA. If we fish in nonproductive areas, the best of anything won't help us.

🎣 Secondly, there are simply times when the fish are so inactive or turned off that the best angler using the best technique will have a tough time catching them.

🎣 Lastly, there's a lot of confusion on fish scents. Two key factors determine a scent's effectiveness. 

1. First it must contain substances that smell attractive to fish. These substances will be even more efficient if they stimulate the fish to become active and feed. 

2. Secondly, once the scent smells good, it must also disperse in a manner so that fish can smell it.

🎣 Here's where a problem occurs with some scents. Some scents are "oil-based." They do not mix in water. You can test to see if a scent is oil-based by dropping some on the water surface. If it floats, as an oil slick, it's oil-based. If it spreads out as a cloud it's water-soluble, which is what we want.

🎣 Oil-based scents work only once the fish takes them into their mouth or touches them. These appeal to the fish's sense of taste which will usually cause the fish to hold a bait longer, allowing more time to set the hook. They can't, however, be smelled at any distance by fish.

Photo: Ray Hansen with crappies from the same Fishing Facts issue, and sporting a Berkley hat. Berkley was at the leading edge of fish scent research back then, and is still a leader in that area today.