Question - Something To Talk About.

[bonefishdick]

I posted earlier a question about the subject of how fish see and received an awesome reply that contained a wealth of information about the Striper and how it sees. That reply is one that everyone should take the time to read. That being said, I have another question.

I wondering how many if any of you people out there have ever tried adding scent to a fly to see if it would make a difference in getting a fish to hit in certain situations, such as when fishing a Crab fly or on a flat when the fish will follow the fly almost to the tip of the rod.

You don't have to admit to doing this . This could simply fall into the " I Have A Friend Category "

[Living Waters]

Nice to see flyfishing topics like the old days.

I've tried adding scents to flies in the past. I'm a huge fan of scents with soft plastics and swear by it. If you add a scent to a deceiver type fly though it ruins the action of the fly. Most scents are oil based and sticky which will turn a hackle into a stick. If you use clousers you could add a small dab of "Smelly Jelly" near the dumbell eye. If you like gummi flies, sliders, gurglers or poppers, smear them up, go for it!

Sometimes I'll rub a fly on a buefish before I release it, lightly in a small area to not harm the fish.

Just my opinion but I think one reason "flies fish better the more fish you catch" is the fishy smell gets transferred to the fly.

[Peter D]

http://www.overmywaders.com/index.php?home

[Onshore]

Oh, yes. Not bottled scents but a long time ago we used if we had bait on the boat, we would set a couple flies into the bait bucket. We also would put tuna lures in a bucket of mackerel or pogies while trolling. Never noticed that they caught more than unscented though,
Bill H

[Bob Parsons]

I always thought of scents on my flies going against the spirit of flyfishing. I'm not adverse to buying scented plastics. I think the lures action is more important than it's smell as far as stripers are concerned.

[ppatricelli]

I have this friend...........................:
In a non-striper fishery, slow moving flies, fish not very aggressive and more often bite out of curiosity (my friend thinks)....has tried scents extensively. Sometimes they work...and other times not needed at all. It depends.

It is OK, in my friend's eyes, as long as the scent's are "artificial" to match "artificial flies", fish not caught for IGFA purposes, and he doesn't brag about catching them.

Mum's the word.

[Doug Jowett]

I don't like the smell of recently tied flies. So, I store them in home made VCR fly boxes by the dozens. I cut a small piece Berkley Gulp, hook it with a small hook and place into the foam of all my fly boxes. This does get rid of the preservative smells of fly tying material. Does it make catching better? Who knows!! Just another little "guide" secret for you all to think about!!!

[Furious Fly]

Dick,
I've often thought about it and do feel the natural scent can make a difference. I don't care if it's a Blue or whatever, if I catch a fish in the salt I always think to myself... good, at least the fly smells like a fish now. I also try to snag a few baitfish for that reason if there's a cloud around me.
Another thing over the years that has become practice from the trout angle is that I always wet my nymphs and streamers in the stream and include a bit of the native aquatic weeds or bottom thinking it smells more natural now.
No science to base this on but common sense. Most times it probably doesn't make a difference but when fishing to less aggressive or heavily pressured fish or when there's more food than they can eat... it just might be the difference.
As a side note, I don't bother worrying about my dry flies on the stream and apparently popping buggs/top-water lures ( now that I'm thinking about it ).

Can't you just picture a Striper following your fly almost right up to you then deciding at the last second whether to eat it or not? It's nose it as close to the minnow that smells like what?...

I can remeber one time my fly vest was hanging in the hallway when my daughter was leaving the house (a teen at the time) sprayed herself with enough perfume to kill a trout stream. I had to retie everything and wash the boxes/vest in deer hunting scent killer. Those flies can't catch anything ever since (except for VD but I wguess, but haven't tried!). That's about as scientific as I've been able to prove.

[bucko]

Scent is something is something I’ve thought about also. Many of the fish I caught last year were feeding on sand eels. Maybe I’ll look for and pick up some sand eel scent. It can’t hurt.

Is anyone aware of any studies concerning how stripers use their sense of smell when feeding?

Good post.

[isleomaniac]

I always coat my sand eel candies and flies with sand eel scent. Couldn't say if it makes any difference but it gives me more confidence in what I am doing.

[Soundking]

All species of fish respond to chum, and the Stripers certainly do exceptionally well. I think Stripers are far more visually oriented than they are scent oriented, but then again everything comes down to situation. I think that if you have exceptionally switched off fish and your presentation comes down to motion without movement then yeah, it certainly would help. Then again, the most efficient way to catch bass with flies is to target fish that are actively hunting. In that situation I think visual appeal and displacement comes far more into play than scent. I also think that flies are the most effective presentation for hyper switched off fish in a finesse situation and scent would certainly apply there.

I pay a lot of attention to what freshwater bass guys do because they are the best there are at making fish eat. There is a soft swimbait out there that is called the Huddleston. They are a large trout imitation and they are lethal. The concept behind them is the displacement signature of the tail. I have been able to fish a lot of visually constrained bait saturated situations with Stripers and have applied a lot of displacement concepts to my game. I have found that in these situations, displacement signature is far more important than profile, action, or scent. One would think that this is a situation where scent would shine, but I have tested it enough against displacement to view displacement as far more important. I view scent along with color and action as a trigger, not as an attractor. When you have fish closely inspecting your stuff and you are fishing slow it certainly does make a difference. I don't think it should be a primary area of concern in reaction bite type situations or for searching situations. Like anything else, it is a situational tool and should be treated as such.

[Slappy]

when I go fishing, I like to catch fish.


So I do the things that help me catch more fish...