Bass Fishing Attractants

"I was one of the latter, it took me years before I found the right mentor to help me understand how to balance bait, line, rod, reel and various techniques. While fishing comes easy to me, I understand how frustrating it can be. Understanding the technique is the first step, but understanding the art behind the science is equally important. We hope that this site will help you improve your game and that you find it a helpful place to gather and exchange information." - Simon

Fish Formulas

We get a lot of emails asking if fishing oils and scents really work. The simple answer is "yes." But asking what scent to use is much like asking which lure should I use. The proper scent will depend on the fish and its location.

However, let's look at bass fishing. We recommend the use of crawfish, shad and garlic scents as these are proven, tested and used by most bass anglers.

First, let's get rid of the most popular myth: there is no such thing as a scent that will attract fish. Scents, of fish formula, do nothing other than cover-up unwanted tastes or scents that have been contaminated, most likely from your hands. Think of fish formulas as hand soap. How many times have you filled up your car and gotten some gas on your hands? Don't think so? Next time you fill up, smell your hands afterwards. Fish scents act as cleaners to clear up bad odours like gasoline.

Now that we have that myth out of the way, let's recall that fish do have scent organs and can smell their food., which is why we recommend crawfish scented baits. It is the number one bass food in North America. What about other popular fish like salmon and trout?

Predation and Perception

Fish do not have large brains that have them analyse a lure, leader and other mechanics of a presented lure. They respond to conditions by reacting and their responses are rather limited.

While it does not take a lot of smarts to outwit a fish, it does require a good understanding of their senses, which are very sensitive. Some sense are stronger in some species than others depending on the species and their habitat. Those fish that have a keen sense of movement or vibration are better caught with live bait, but can be scared away with lines or leaders that suffer from vibration. Those with excellent eye sight can be scared away from line colour or a wire leader, while others are attracted by specific bright colours and others by dull colours.

One of their most popular responses is to food and their urge to feed is very strong regardless of the species. They also have a strong sense of survival with reproduction their next biggest urge, which often takes over all other needs. Understand how they respond in each situation will help you understand what technique to use.

Fish strike for various reasons and it is not always for food. Sometimes they respond out of hunger, other they respond to defend.

The key is understanding the fish you want to catch and appealing to its senses and avoid those movements, lures, baits and tackle that wills care them away.

Smell

All fish have the ability to smell and each species is different than the other. While we do not know to what degree they can smell, we do know that human odours do repel fish and that baits like worms that have smells most likely do a better job of masking human odours than attracting the fish. In this case, there is a greater chance to push fish away with odour than to attract.

Vision

Fish have a great sense of hearing, yet their sense of sight is much more limited in the best of fish in terms of how we can see. Water, even when clear, is difficult so see through in vast distances. Many would argue, and be correct, in that fish can see much better through sound than they can through their eyes.

However, in clear water, fish do respond to certain colours more than others. You can also appeal to their sense of hungry with life like replicas of their most popular foods. Just because a colour range works well on one species, which is no guarantee that it will work well for all species: fFor example, Pacific Salmon and more colour-centric than their related cousins the trout. Once again, knowing these details will improve your success with the right techniques.

Hearing

Fish hear well. Not only do they hear better than we do, but they have the ability to hear sounds outside of our audible range. Understanding this is critical because sounds in water travel much further than in air so be careful not to scare them by walking loudly on a dock, dropping things in a boat or anything else that will cause a vibration.

However, mimicking the sounds made by injured fish and other prey will increase your chances of success.

Taste

As with sight, there is no real consensus regarding a fish's ability to taste. However, it is important to understand that some fish taste by bumping into the lure with external sensory organs, which appear like whiskers: catfish have the most recognisable barbs. Those fish without barbs often mouth a lure to see if it is worth eating. Those fish that mouth a lure will quickly spit it out if they detect it is not food. For these fish, a quick yank of the line is needed when using a lure, though live bait would work best. Again, understand your prey's preference.