Washing plugs

[Cougartail]

One must remember a spawning salmon/steelhead finds his way back home by the levels of trace elements in the water. Let that sink in.

They miss almost nothing in the detection of smells.

[huntnphool]

 FWIW, I’ve always had good luck with Johnson’s Head to Toe Baby Wash, and catch plenty of fish. Not only does it clean my lures, but it takes all bait smell off of your hands. I keep a bottle on my boat and wash my hands after baiting up the hooks or handling the fish. I don’t get everything I touch smelly that way either.

 It also helps your hands from getting dried out in the salt water too.

 Baby Wash, not Baby Shampoo

[WSU]

I wear gloves to protect my hands as much as I do for scent control.  I don’t wear gloves when fishing with lures but do when fishing bait. The salt and sulfites really do a number on my hands.

[Crunchy]

I usually just rinse with water and a little spray of WD to prevent the rust.  Not sure just soap and water will get the salt off enough to prevent rust.  If I only fished fresh water then a little soap and water would do the trick.

[carpsniperg2]

Lots of great discussions guys. There is for sure 2 different mind sets on this. Which I have seen in person as well. I know guys that handle there eggs and bait no gloves and hammer fish. Then others that are super careful and say when they don’t they don’t catch as many fish.

I’m of the mind set with a lot of guys. It for sure can’t hurt to be scent cautions with bait and plugs.

[dilleytech]

Primarily a river guy myself, and only toss hardware. I keep it all washed for looks, not really scent. Never bought into the blue glove bait crowd. Aren't they still grabbing the outboard and other stuff? I recall my dad and his buddies only drifted bait in the summer. No gloves, always had cigarettes and sandwiches.  They flat out crushed the fish.

Agreed also have noticed zero benefit to wearing gloves. Fish just don’t care. They can be picky kinda but human scent doesn’t seem to be one they care about. Confidence in what your doing does help however. So if you think it improves your odds it actually might.

It depends on the human scent.  If you ever fished with a person that smokes and chews and you are egg fishing in the river I wouldn't let them handle my stuff.  Same goes for dog scent on the boat or hands.  There are several studies where the scent of dogs is introduced into rivers and fish hide and don't bite.

There are other "human" scents like when you gas up the boat or the tons of other things we do that isn't going to up your odds.

My own very scientific studies have shown Salmon love the scent of my dog. I always seem to catch more fish when I’m consistently touching my dog and baits. Good luck lab. Anyone who has seen a hot bite in a river full of people putting there scent into the water constantly knows that human scent doesn’t stop a bite or a migration.

[Stein]

Primarily a river guy myself, and only toss hardware. I keep it all washed for looks, not really scent. Never bought into the blue glove bait crowd. Aren't they still grabbing the outboard and other stuff? I recall my dad and his buddies only drifted bait in the summer. No gloves, always had cigarettes and sandwiches.  They flat out crushed the fish.

Agreed also have noticed zero benefit to wearing gloves. Fish just don’t care. They can be picky kinda but human scent doesn’t seem to be one they care about. Confidence in what your doing does help however. So if you think it improves your odds it actually might.

It depends on the human scent.  If you ever fished with a person that smokes and chews and you are egg fishing in the river I wouldn't let them handle my stuff.  Same goes for dog scent on the boat or hands.  There are several studies where the scent of dogs is introduced into rivers and fish hide and don't bite.

There are other "human" scents like when you gas up the boat or the tons of other things we do that isn't going to up your odds.

My own very scientific studies have shown Salmon love the scent of my dog. I always seem to catch more fish when I’m consistently touching my dog and baits. Good luck lab. Anyone who has seen a hot bite in a river full of people putting there scent into the water constantly knows that human scent doesn’t stop a bite or a migration.

I agree on the hot bit thing, it's the other 95% of the time where I think it matters.  Either that or I need to figure out how to get on more hot bites.