Scent, Size and Color

In my competitive bass fishing days, it was pretty routine for myself and the cult members to every few casts, pick up a container with a spray nozzle and spray the lure with scent that regardless the type or brand, seemed to put an oil slick on the water the EPA would investigate, now. Not that these type scents aren't still used but as with everything, technology has developed scent distribution to multiple possibilities. "Oil slick" method, waxes as pictured here, and even "baked in" to the lure. So how important is scent to catching fish?

As little as three years ago, you could find me spraying, waxing, or dipping my offerings every few casts. Especially in summer, where air and water molecules dispersing scent (including fish repelling scents) is scientifically more prominent than cold air and water. All the while, a fellow fisherman somewhere dinking around to see if all of that scent was really necessary. By spraying bug spray, petroleum products, rubbing milkweed or persimmon, you get the idea, on their lures to see if it made a difference.

By default, my being lazy some days and not wanting to exert the effort to "scent" my lures as often as what may be necessary caused an untended and no effort piece of research developed and concluded. I was still catching the same number of fish without obsessing over "scent". I had scent for trout. Scent for panfish. Scent for bass. Sometimes leaving me to wonder, which fish talked of each of those species and revealed the recipe that would tempt them to sit at the table with me? Pictured at the heading is left over from when I thought scent may be a double digit percentage of catching fish. But here's where I'm at today. (And fishing is a fluid thing-no pun intended. Who knows where I'll be with fishing and scents a year from now. Who cares? (Not me.)) If you handle the gas pump on the way to your fishing hole, or you're wiping sweat on a hot day, or otherwise just massage a lure during the process of tying it on the line-ya better spray or wipe some scent. Regulations permitting. And I've no proof this is necessary! I just can't convince myself nor do I wish to waste the time determining that petro or human chemicals do repel fish. Or not. Today, I'm fine with wiping trout wax on a crappie jig. Or crappie wax on a trout jig. Or bass wax on either. Just cover your or Phillips 66 experience with a fishy scent.

Size. Here's where you better be a little more purposeful. Unscientifically, I've gathered enough evidence that for one thing, fish use far more energy to digest food, than humans. Add to that, they don't know when their next meal may happen so they're programmed to spend as little energy as possible running down their meal. Unlike you, who can sit and wait for it to be served. On a reliable schedule. Now add a fish body temperature equalling that of the water around it, and how would you feel about trying to run down a galloping elk, and then trying to digest that meal?

Of the big three this blog is about, "size" is where you'd better have your poop in a group. There's also clear evidence that the more fish are pressured, the smaller the lure had better be. Ask a biologist-even a huge chunk of life on the water hasn't presented me with even any pseudoscience as to why that is. Bare basics: Warm water feeding fish, larger lures. High pressure-warm or cold water-smaller lures. Cold water or pressured fish, smaller lures. Then there's a lot of subchapters to those rules that may change the size.

Color: Probably the most debated, controversial of the big three. Brad in Mississippi boat deck looks like a fireworks show freeze frame when he comes in from crappie fishing. To complicate matters, he places as much importance to the color of that tiny little lead head, as he does the lure body. Another crappie killer I've viewed uses this rule about jig heads-"I only use unpainted...". Well, that's my philosophy 90% of the time! I go on to justify my reasoning as that grey lead ball being the most neutral color to put in front of a fish's eyeballs. I've even taken it another step to think, "So the fish sees what color it wants to see!"

Body color: Natural looking (baitfish) colors in clear water. Black and/or wild color in the body, if not the whole body, in muddy water. This is my rule and it is oh so simple. I pay attention to the food sources in the water and try to match that natural color. Eyeball my general, clear water selections on the left and muddy on the right, and in the middle a major blessing-colors that work close to equal in both water clarities. One of my better crappie lakes I've never figured out why year after year one of the best jig body colors is a milky clear with specks at the front of the body and normally used in very clear water situations, but a chartreuse that practically glows, back half of the body.

While I don't care to get obsessed with color I can be influenced. Brad is obsessed with pink jig heads 12 months of the year. Phil on Lake Taneycomo seems to be one of the most simple trout fishermen out there, never declaring "...ya gotta use this, ya gotta do that..." This is the kinda guy that you gotta put your antenna's up and your thinking cap on. Because as much as he doesn't seem to be tied to any one particular thing I do hear weekly, "...orange jig head." I may be set in my ways a bit, with my two categories of colors for jig bodies and "grey jig head is all you need" beliefs. But I have pink, and orange jig head powder paint in my Bass Pro Shops shopping cart, as I write.

The elephant in the room.

You may catch fish disregarding scent, size, and color. But your fishing without confidence can easily result a big 0 every trip. Often because lack of confidence simply causes giving up long before you ever find the fish. But even if you do stay with it, lack of confidence usually turns fishing into casting practice. That's about it. So if a kaleidoscope of colors in your tackle bag and on your boat floor gives you that confidence as it does Brad, you'd better get your degree in the color spectrum and apply it to your lure selection. If your lure smelling like an abandoned fish market on a Midwestern July day gives you confidence, you'd better beef it up to smell as such and keep the barf bag close. If size doesn't matter no cute comments please, then tie on that baby whale to chase bluegill or crappie. I've become so obsessed with "smaller-smaller-smaller" I'm probably missing my chance at the new state record something! After all, it's pretty much common sense that in the wild, small is less likely to chase big, but big will always chase big at some point. Last words: Poo pooing or criticizing a fisherman's belief in rocketing through the colors of a paint pallet, or being addicted to stink on the lure, is the same as criticizing someone for building their confidence. Because that's all these tools really do-they build confidence. Until they don't.