Attractants

[Alchase]

I am posting this from the Poles section to discuss the use of attractants while fishing.

I was at a Trout unlimited meeting back in the late 80s, we had a Rep from the major plug company (can't remember what their name was) come to our meeting and show us an incredible video about how they research their plugs and attractants for salmon. They put a bunch of plugs on a spreader bar with a camera attached so they could see the salmon behavior as they attacked the plug. Their research showed that for every fish that hit the lure, between 10-20 came up looked at it and swam away. It had incredible footage of some really large salmon come right up behind the plugs look at it and leave. The cool part was you could watch the Salmon sneak up on the plug, drop back almost out of sight then come screaming back in to take the plug or hit it with there tail. It was amazing how fast they are moving when they hit it. The salmon never took the plug when they first came up to check it out.
They used every thing they could think of to try as an attractant, bilge water, blood, anise oil, vanilla, and most commercially sold products as well as WD-40, even motor oil. What they found is that almost anything that leaves a scent slick will increase your hit rate. WD-40 did as well as any of the commercially sold products. What seemed to work best was whatever bait fish that was running "at that time". If the salmon were feeding on sardines then wrapping a thin fillet of a sardine worked best. This seemed to work with squid, and herring as well.
I was curious what you guys use and have had success with?

[cohoho]

Attractants are great, especially when bait soaked over night prior to hitting the water, I personally perfer types that will stay on and always leave a milky trail behind.  But, I will state that the MOST important part to catching at least Kings and Silvers is leave no scent other than what your using for attractant.  Salmon are phenomenal in regards to their ability to tell which waters they came from and return.  Any odd smell to them is a turn off (Especially Kings), Silvers will hit as a reaction more time than smell.  I believe and have witnessed first hand for years in Alaska that if your lures aren't scent free first off, your catch rate will be low.  So many people do not go the extra effort to clean lures, never touch them with a bare hands and never use gloves when touching bait.  The prep work is a pain in the butt, but it will pay off in the fishing.  Try it some time, clean your lures, swivels and hooks, store them in scent free container, (i.e. Clean Plastic Boxes), don't touch them with bare hand use rubber gloves, always use gloves when baiting and checking bait.  I will guarantee your success rate will improve.  Compare it to two different rods utilizing the same setup but one being scent free and the other regular way.  It has worked for me for years. I guess I really didn't even talk about attractants, so apologize for side tracking the other way......

[Alchase]

Cohoho, not side tract at all, all part of the same topic in my mind. I have heard this from other who spend more time then I do fishing. I have never tried your idea, but it is definitely worth looking into. Over the years I had gotten into the habit of spraying my lures with WD-40 more as a cover scent then an attractant and the poll on attractants reminded me of the video. I always run two poles with different lures, weights, or bait, until we find out what is working that day. Will definitely try what you suggested. A friend of mine who fishes a ton more then I do is of a totally different mind set. I asked him what he thought about attractants his answer was
"attractants? nah, just go were the fish are, you will catch fish"
 LOL who would have thought, lol.

[cohoho]

"attractants? nah, just go were the fish are, you will catch fish"


I like that way of thinking too.....

[Snowman]

I would agree with coho. The less scent that's already there the better. I use a mixture of 2 scents anise and shrimp gel. The gel seems to last a alot longer and the mixture has worked for me very well for steelhead and salmon. When in the river the fish are really skittish as it is, so less human odor the best. I don't use gloves, but a hunting soap that removes all odor, I always have a bottle with me and use it every time that I need to bait up or change gear. Another thing that I have found to is take some of the gel after I wash my hands rub gel into hands. Bad part is even washing your hands your hands smell like sandshrimp for a day or two after your day of fishing.