Scent! Yea or Nay?

[MRoberts]

On the “Best Trigger” thread Esoxthinker asked this question:

“I am not disagreeing that scent cant hurt but, will it help is another question.
When would a muskie use its scent to feed. From my experience I have never seen concrete evidence that a muskie uses scent at all to feed. Why would a muskie use scent to feed on a cisco, lets say?”

I thought that question deserved it own thread.

My answer is I don’t really know, I have never really thought about it much.

But that being said, Muskies do have, I believe, a documented sense of smell. I am starting to feel as long as the smell is natural why not try and used it to our advantage. Some will probably say go with an unnatural smell it will cause more strikes. All I’ll say is I will try natural first and work from there if I think it makes a difference. Some have had good luck with scents most have never tried them. Is there anyone who thinks they hurt?

As far as when do I think scents would help I would say during the follow they would make the most difference. I have never caught a fish that didn’t smell at least a little. If a scented trailer will turn that following musky into a striker, I want to give it a try.

Nail A Pig!

Mike

Let 'em go, Let 'em Grow

[esoxthinker]

I will say that I have seen muskies bumping on follows and opening their mouths. It looks like they are smelling. But are they?? I doubt it.
But, then again, I dont think that follows are feeding behaviors either.

Mike, have you seen this bumping behavior?

[HerbB]

I guess I'm the one that mentioned the scented trailers and want to share a little of my experience with them.

First, I have tried about every type of trailer that I could find over the years. Big ones, little ones, single tail, double tail, squirly tail, split/four tail, scented, non-scented, even sassy shads and lots of other stuff. And I learned that it seems that sometimes a trailer doesn't always help and scented doesn't always seem to help either. There are days when it seems the only way a fish will be interested in a bucktail is with a trailer and other days when it simply doesn't matter. And the same holds true for scented trailers. Some days they make a big difference and other days it seems to make no difference at all. And I can't explain why. The only time a trailer seems to hurt is when the fish seem to be looking for smaller baits and the trailer makes the bucktail to big. But I've never been able to associate a negative affect with scent.

I can't explain why scent seems to help, but I have caught my largest fish three of the past four years while using bucktails with scented trailers. Now, might I have caught those same fish with unscented trailers or no trailers at all? Possibly. But it seems to increase my percentages and so I use them.

One thing about trailers is I find it very helpful to anchor them onto the bucktail with some sort of stinger hook. I like the Cats Tail bucktails because they have the built-in hook that is ideal for putting trailers on. But, just like everyone else, I also have many other bucktails and I just add a 2/0 or 4/0 stinger hook and put the trailer on that. Gotta make sure you have that trailer hook anchored well though. I use a piece of semi-hard plastic tubing that I force over the barb. The stinger hook not only holds the trailer in place, but it also hooks a lot of the fish that nip at the trailer. I've caught many Muskies that way and that alone has accounted for about half the fish in my boat over the past six or seven years.

Hope my rambling is helpful for someone. Guess I'm giving away a few secrets here, but what goes around, comes around, eh?

Herb

[nxtwrldrcd]

I’ll share our secrete ingredient in our chum mix when fishing in the Keys – WD40. Fish oil is an ingredient in it. I’ve never tried spraying it on a bucktail, but I’ll give it a shot next season and we’ll talk later. It cant hurt (I think), and it’s not a big deal to put on, so why not?

[DocEsox]

Interesting...while living in Alaska and fishing the Kenai for big kings all of the guides I was with and most I saw always sprayed their baits with WD-40 before dropping them in the water. Very popular up there.....

BrianW

[HerbB]

Not only that, but with the WD-40 you can spray your reel down if it starts sticking a little.:)

I think scents are a good thing to have in your tackle box, but I wouldn't depend totally on them.

I have some old Northern/Muskie scent in my boat that I use for Northern fishing occasionally. I like to add some to spoons and it seems to work well. I did catch my largest metro Northern, a 41.5 incher, on a scented spoon that way. Might have caught it anyways, who knows. However there was the time when I was fishing Northerns with my younger brother and we weren't getting a bite. So, I pulled out the scent and after accidentally squirting some all over him, the fish started biting. Don't think we actually put any on the lures, but he sure smelled sweet. :)

Anyone else hitting the St. Paul Sports Show this weekend? I used to pick up some good Muskie tackle there at times and they have lots of boats to look at too. :)

Herb

[esoxthinker]

Can anybody answer this question?


In what way would muskie use its sense of smell when feeding on walleye, perch, ciscos, etc......?????



esoxthinker

[nxtwrldrcd]

Well, it has a sense of smell. If it didn’t use it, it probably wouldn’t have one. Answer this. Why do they have a sense of smell then? Probably good for something, maybe they use it for the old “sniff test” before going down on another fish during spawning.:7

[esoxthinker]

nxtwrldrcd,

I would think that a muskie uses its sense of smell for finding its way around a lake and for spawing and that is pretty much it..

esoxthinker

[nxtwrldrcd]

How would smell get them around the lake? I think that the smell of a lake is probably pretty consistent throughout, unless it’s a flowage or river. I have no idea how a musky navigates, but if it’s sense of smell is acute enough to smell different weed types or whatever it smells when navigating. I think they could smell diffent types of baitfish too then. At least with the baitfish theory they can smell what they are about to eat. We all know a walleye tastes better than a bullhead (to us). I agree with the spawning thought, but navigation? I doubt it. IMHO

[nxtwrldrcd]

This reminds me of a funny thing a friend does when fishing. When he brings in snagged weeds he smells them to see If they’re fresh or not. Just a joke though, he likes fresh weed.:9

[nxtwrldrcd]

Perhaps it’s all fishsh!t. Possibly the muskies track their prey by following the poop trial, and then find their way back to wherever by following their own poop trial. Maybe this is why the “dog turd” works well. Be careful when wiping you’re a$$ with a bucktail though.

50 degrees outside and January – perfect condition for musky fever – can ya tell?

[esoxthinker]

nxtwrldrcd,

Okay, Why would a muskie use its sense of smell for feeding. I dont see the benifit. I do, however, see the benifit of using it for travel.

I would think that a weed flat smells diffeent than open water (to a muskie)

esoxthinker

[nxtwrldrcd]

Perhaps their sense of smell would indicate to them the most nutritious fish to eat. You know conditioning.

[HerbB]

Thats funny. Getting back to the original question about using scent to catch Muskies, I do think it can make a difference in getting a Muskie to bite. The difference I see between using non-scented and scented trailers is an increase in the number of strikes while a fish is following. A lot of times the fish just nip it, but its a blast having a four foot Muskie follow your bait to the boat nipping at it all the way. It sure gets the old heart going even if you don't get hooks into her.

Muskies have a lot of senses - sight, vibration (lateral line), and smell and I think they use all their senses to some degree. I do believe that sight and vibration are the two main factors and smell is a bit more secondary, but it can still be a factor and could be the difference between catching fish and not on a given day.

Just my two cents.

[MUTANT]

The answer is NAY..... Obviously

[HerbB]

And you just wait when Mike catches a bunch of fish on those scented trailers this summer and then does an article with Jason about using scented trailers in Musky Hunter magazine. Now, wouldn't that be funny.:)

Hey, Mike. If you ever do an article like that, please mention my name, OK? Oooh. Oooh. My 15 seconds of fame. Yes!!! :):):)

[MRoberts]

Herb if it works out that way, and I hope it does, cause it means more skies in the boat for me, your in man. I am a big fan of giving credit where credit is due.

ESOXTHINKER, I have seen the bumping and apparent smelling. I have even seen them take a head slap at a bait with there mouth closed. Don't know why they do it and can't explain it. But smell seams to be a pretty good reason for the open and closing of the mouth. Why do you think they do it?

NWR, I know it was a joke, but you may actually be on to something with your fishsh!t post. If a musky has a sense of smell and it can use it to find a weed bed or find it’s way back to a favorite creek inlet. Why couldn’t it pick up the scent of a passing baitfish and follow it to the source and eat.

More likely the scent is just the final piece of the puzzle that causes a strike.

Mutant says scent doesn't matter, why do you feel this way?

Nail A Pig!

Mike

Let 'em go, Let 'em Grow

[Waterwolf]

Herb,
How many trebles did it take to rig up the little bro'?
Have a good one!
The Wolf
* We are having Dick Pearson as our speaker at our Muskies Inc. meeting in March. Something to keep in mind.

[HerbB]

Mike,

Glad to hear you've seen some of the same things I have. I was beginning to wonder if I was growing old.:)

I'd recommend picking up a CatsTail Original or two. The hot ones for me have consistently been the knickle or copper blade and brown hair with a brown (crawfish) trailer. I plan to check at the Musky expo here in MN to see if there is a brass colored blade available too. Another combo that has been great is the chartruse blade with black hair and a white trailer. You might have to do a special order for that color combo, but its well worth it. The contrast really gets them sometimes. Lost the biggest fish I had on last summer, one pushing 48-50 inches on a Catstail in that color combo. My biggest fish landed was on the knickle/brown hair/brown trailer combo and that lure was hot everywhere I went.

Have a good one.

Herb