THE IMPORTANCE OF SCENT
Angling legend Adam Royter talks about how important scent is when it comes to fish opening their mouth and eating your lure!
If fish smell in parts per million (ppm), that’s the equivalent of 1 minute in two years or 1cm in 14km! That’s a pretty good nose!
Imagine being born in spot ‘X’ and over the next three years, swimming some 2000km away, through two different environments, then swimming back to spot ‘X’ for the first time to spawn in exactly the same spot as you were born! Fish do this every year with the help from their nose.
Water is a fantastic medium for a scent to travel in. Far better than air. Basically, there are far fewer solubles in water to breakdown the scent molecules, and the speed in which scent moves in the water is considerably slower than in air – concentrating it and keeping it intensified.
Ok, enough science rubbish. Let’s talk fishing and how to catch more fish using our brains and their noses!
Masking
Not a face mask you Covid-19 junkies, but masking what you unknowingly put on your lures and then try to feed to fish!
Looking at the above facts about what fish smell, you would think that they can pretty quickly sniff out the bacon and egg sanga you’ve got smeared all over your fingers! So how do you think they’re going to go with the sunscreen, bug repellent and boat fuel? Have you ever got any of these in your eyes? Did it sting? MY WORD IT DID!
Can you imagine the minuscule amount of these toxic elements it takes for a fish to smell something fishy? Let me tell you, not much!
So little in fact, that you as a human have absolutely ZERO chance of ever detecting it. So don’t ever try sniffing your lure box you creep!
The fundamental of how to rid your lures of everything human is to use scent. Some scents have absolutely nothing to do with what fish want or are even looking for. And some, like Gulp!, are scientifically engineered to fool fish. I’m pretty sure which one I’m going to pick!
Gulping Down the Facts
By now, you all know what Gulp! is. If not, its ‘environmentally friendly’ and packs 400x more scent dispersion than any other soft bait. The ‘take-homes’ here are – scent dispersion. Kicking out the scent is what Gulp! does best. Because it’s water-soluble polymer it delivers the fish feeding stimulants from its rubbery body, directly to the water column — no oil or styrenic copolymer to hinder the release process.
What this means to you is, even if you have nuclear grade bug spray dripping from your fingers, when Gulp! hits the water, it will push it off and away instantly like lifeboats from a sinking ship, rather than retain it and buzz-kill your soft bait!
Having this process automatically adapted to every Gulp! soft bait is pretty cool, but what’s even cooler is the fish feeding stimulant that’s powering these lures!
Do you even Science?
If you’re anything like me, you hated science at school. The only thing good about it was the Bunsen burner because you got to burn stuff!
Thankfully, Berkley has a team of scientists and chemical engineers working at Spirit Lake in the US.
These beaker-squeezers have been in the game of making fish eat for 30 years. With a live-fish facility in-house, they have painstakingly developed the ever-evolving, closely guarded ‘fish feeding stimulant’ that Berkley soft baits are renowned for.
Fooling fish is the game-play. Without boring you into a coma, the numbers speak for themselves. More professional fishing guiding operations use Gulp! than any other soft bait.
Time is money, and catching fish is king, so if your lively hood depends on putting fish in your boat, and Gulp! helps you do that, then the numbers have it!
Some would argue that scent isn’t a big deal, and they catch plenty of fish without it. But if you’re serious about catching fish, why wouldn’t you want everything in your favour?! And we’re not talking about grains of sand here – we’re talking sheep stations!
A fishes sense of smell is its most extensive, physical attribute. More significant than its sight, taste and sense of feeling. You’re just straight-up mad if you don’t seriously take note of this acutely sensitive ability.
Something Old – Something New
Now soft baits are not everyone’s cup of tea. And some people use a lot of different brands of soft baits. Many of these things not only have no scent, but they smell positively horrific – and that’s to our sense of smell! I can’t imagine what the fish think?!
We’re trying to make a fish believe that what we are offering is the real deal. This is, and will always be, made harder by the chemicals we have in our human environment. So do yourself a massive solid and be VERY mindful of what ‘smells’ are being applied to your lures and even better, mask them with something that the fish like to eat, like Gulp!.
By Adam Royter
Adam has done a lot of fishing in his 40 odd years and has been a long-standing member of the Berkley Pro Team since Gulp!’s first introduction to Australia. A passionate ambassador for recreational angling, Adam is also one of the most recognizable characters in the Australian fishing industry.
