Do Oils/chemicals From Your Hands Affect Baits While Pitching?

[Sam]

Bassin Blvd, at one of the original Bassmaster University seminars in Richmond Ken Cook made an excellent one hour presentation on the bass, itself.

After graduating Oklahoma State University with a B.S. in Zoology Cook worked for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation as a Fisheries Biologist. So not only did we have a successful bass fishing pro on stage but a fisheries biologist.

Here is what Cook said about bass' feeding habits.

Preditor - search and destroy - Bass hide and ambush their prey.

Oppotomistic - Bass eat anything that presents itself as an easy opportunity.

Hank Parker added that a bass will strike a bait out of impulse.

I also remember one of participants at a Bassmasters University tell us that a bass will swim with other baitfish and then, all of a sudden, turn on them and attack. There is a "word" for this behavior but I can't find it in my notes.

So how does this relate to scent? When the bass hit your lure they taste and feel it. If there is anything they believe is "wrong" with your bait they will spit it out. All this takes place in a second or two.

Sometmes you can't set the hook fast enough. Other times you set the hook but it is not a good hookset and the bass comes unbuttoned.

I put scent on crankbaits and spinnerbaits, too.

You want the bass to hold onto your bait as long as possible. With a Senko you want them to inhale the plastic and and swim away with it. Sometimes you only notice your line moving to know they have the bait and are walking with it.

Same for frogs. You have to let the bass take the frog, make a run, and then set the hook so the longer the bass can hold onto the frog the greater the probability you will hook them.

Just thought I would add my two cents about your post. Glad you are giving this topic your thoughts and consideation. Just remember, if you are ever fishing a tournament that I am also fishing please do not use scent.

Regarding your query if the bass emit a "scent" to let others know they are in peril: Jim Kerr, an old Virginia bass pro and guide who passed away two years ago told me that he was told at a class he took on guiding many years ago that a bass does emit a "scent" to alarm the other fish.

True or false I have no idea nor have I found any articles about this theory.

I do know that I can pull two or three bass off one target one after the other so you can take that theory and decide if it is true or not.

[Will Wetline]

I have always been surprised that being a cigarette smoker has not made a difference when handling soft plastic baits. I have fished quite a bit with non smokers and have not detected a difference in hook ups. I don't apply a masking scent to the bait.

Don't for a second think that I'm advocating smoking, by the way!

[rockchalk06]

I have always been surprised that being a cigarette smoker has not made a difference when handling soft plastic baits. I have fished quite a bit with non smokers and have not detected a difference in hook ups. I don't apply a masking scent to the bait.

Don't for a second think that I'm advocating smoking, by the way!

Back before I quit smoking, I would smoke while fishing, while deer and turkey hunting and honestly never noticed a difference.

[Silas]

Wow! Thanks so much for all the replies and info, guys!

So far, I've decided that there is a "mixed" set of opinions, and all are to be considered.

For the time being, I'll be washing my hands to make sure they are free of sunscreen, DEET, oil, gas, etc.

Back 60 years ago.....I know, I'm an old dude, my uncle, 60 years old then, a "Master Fisherman" in HIS day, used to bring cans of SARDINES and boxes of crackers with us. His take was that we needed to smell like a fish, so we wouldn't scare it off. Of course, sardines were quick and easy to bring and we ate them with relish.

Didn't wash our hands much in those days, so everything we touched in the boat got sardine flaver to it.

Maybe the old man was on to something......he was a "fish catching machine!"

[Bassn Blvd]

Sam,

The reason I was thinking Bass put off a scent or distress signal is because I've caught small bass and have had BIG bass follow them in trying to eat'em. Strange, but I've seen bass trying to eat other bass darn near their same size.

I've lowered hooked bass as live bait into the water (hooked in the body, not mouth). The hooked bass located and joined a nearby group of bass. The hooked bass hovered motionlessly just like the other non-hooked bass. The hooked bass just sorta "hung out" with the others as if he wasn't hooked. The hooked bass displayed no signs of distress or weakness, to what I as a human could tell. The BIG bass would come cruising in and automatically target the hooked bass, as if she knew the hooked bass would be an easy target, even though it did not display any signs of weakness. I began thinking that the BIG bass was alerted to the hooked bass by some sort of scent the hooked bass was giving off.

Perhaps the scent is only given off when the bass is in distress? Kind of like humans will sweat when nervous.

[Bassn Blvd]

Your observation has little to do with the topic.

In nature only the strong or wary servive. Predators live among prey all the time and become active predators hunting prey for short periods of time. The prey that servive being hunted are the first to recognize the cha predators change in activity. Pride of lions are a good comparison, laying around sleeping and relaxing while herds of prey animals graze nearby. A few of the grazing animals are keeping an eye on the lions, look outs warn the herd. If one of the lions notices a volnurable prey nearby, the lions are quick to change their activity level and start to hunt the weak.

When you hook a live bait, the hook injures the bait fish, your line creates a trendous amount of drag for the fish to pull through the water, predator bass recognize the struggle to swim as a weakness.

Tom

It has alot to do with the topic if bass give off scent when in distress and If that scent could be duplicated into a product.

I didn't imagine barely skin hooking a 3/4-1 pound bass with a thin wired, 2/0 or smaller hook and #10 mono would have a significant impact on their bevavior.

[Sam]

_{Bassin, you may be right.}

_{I have had big bass attack smaller bass as I was reeling them in.}

_{You may have witnessed something that biologists have not studied.}

[J Francho]

I've even seen big bass get attacked by even bigger bass after being hooked. I always thought it might be territorial behavior related.

[WRB]

Big bass will eat smaller bass, a lot of times school bass will try to take the lure away from a hooked bass, this happens more with smallmouth.

California and other states it's illegal to use a bass as bait, or any other game fish or parts of game fish.

I have watched giant bass follow up another big bass I was fighting amd thought the other big bass was curious about the behavior of the hooked bass because the free swimming bass always stayed a few fet away from the hooked bass.

There iss a lot we don't know about bass,; why releasing a bass during a hot bit can shut it off almost immediately at times and have no affect at other times. If this was caused by releasing a chemical, it should be consistantl, not random.

Tom

PS; 10 lb mono has a lot drag in the water, the hook may be small to us, it's added weight to the bass swimming with it.