Making sense of Fish scents: Do they actually assist you to catch extra fish? • Out of doors Canada

The Science Behind Fish Scents: Do They Really Work?

Do fish scents work? Should we apply them to lures to catch more and larger fish like walleye, bass, trout, northern pike, and muskies? We posed this question on our latest Doc Talks Fishing podcast to Dr. Bruce Tufts, a comparative fish physiologist at Queen’s University.

Dr. Tufts explained that because we breathe air, we often don’t understand how things work in water. “Fish have a highly developed sense of scent and taste,” he says. “Their effectiveness and sensitivity are something that would surprise many people. Fish have an incredible ability to discriminate between different odors, smells, and tastes.” To see more about fish behavior, watch this video.

When we mentioned to Tufts that studies show a fish’s sense of smell is equivalent to us hearing songbirds in the Amazon rainforest, he agreed. Fish use their senses of smell, taste, and odor “to detect predators, prey, and communicate with one another.” The problem is we live in vastly different worlds, and we don’t realize fish are always smelling and tasting.

Tufts chuckled when we brought up that anglers often worry about getting gasoline and oil on their hands and lures. Unless a substance is water soluble, which oil isn’t, fish can’t detect it. “It’s true,” he says. “Many products from the 1980s for anglers were oil-based attractants. A misconception is that these would stimulate fish positively. In reality, fish couldn’t detect them because oil-based substances aren’t accessible to their scent and taste receptors.” Learn more about the science behind fish senses by visiting nature’s article.

Understanding fish olfactory senses helps us realize why some attractants work and others don’t. It also highlights the importance of water-soluble scents when targeting fish. Fish live in an environment where scent and taste play crucial roles in survival and communication. Therefore, using the right attractants can significantly improve your fishing success. For more about fish scents, visit outdoor being.

Ultimately, the effectiveness of fish scents depends on their solubility in water. Anglers should choose water-soluble attractants to enhance their chances of catching more and larger fish. Understanding the science behind fish senses can lead to more informed and successful fishing strategies.

Not surprisingly, the folks at American Bait Works contacted Tufts and asked if he and his research team at Queen’s University would design a product for them that he could prove—scientifically—was effective. “We came up with plenty of candidate molecules that might stimulate fish receptors based on what we know about other fish species and other animals,” says Tufts. “I have hundreds of fish in the basement of this building, where I’ve run a lab for years, and we set up feeding trials.”

Designing Effective Fish Scents

“We had individual fish in chambers and started the process of working through what we thought were good candidate compounds to stimulate fish in a positive way through scent and taste. It took plenty of work until we narrowed down hundreds of experiments to find compounds that worked and compounds that didn’t. One of the things people may not realize is that a scent isn’t just one molecule or one compound, but a mixture of things that work together to create a positive stimulus. You might think this molecule is important and maybe this one over here is, too. But then you have to figure out the right concentration. So we tried different molecules, different compounds, and different concentrations.”

The Complexity of Fish Scents

“You end up with hundreds of experiments to create something that works together to get fish to think that they’re tasting or smelling something that could be their real prey. When in fact, we’re picking the key molecules that they would be tracking down in the environment, that would tell them that’s what they were smelling or tasting.” To delve deeper into the science, click here.

BaitFuel: A Scientifically Proven Fish Scent

Without giving away too many secrets—you’ll have to listen to the podcast for those details—Tufts and his research team came up with BAITFUEL that is, well, scientifically proven to attract and trigger fish to bite. “What surprised me the most was that you set up a bunch of individuals to do your experiments, and you watch their response to what we call the control or placebo that’s got nothing in it. Then you watch the response compared to the thing you think should give a positive stimulus in the food. It’s so consistent that it doesn’t take very long, and your jaw just drops and you go, wow.”

Listen to the Full Discussion

You can listen to the entire fascinating discussion about fish olfactory senses—and how Tufts and his research team answered every question you’ve ever wondered about fish scents—by tuning into Doc Talks Fishing on your favorite podcast provider. Or simply visit the podcast here and enjoy.