1/08/2001
- Article
Catering
to a Fish’s Sense of Smell and Taste
By Noel Vick with On Ice Tour
We
hadn’t eaten since before sunup and the group was starving from a
long day on the ice. The
waitress flew past leaving a succulent scent trail that made our
stomachs ache even more. On
her tray, which was headed to a neighboring table, rested an
eye-popping ensemble of steak, chicken, and shrimp fajitas garnished
with festive vegetables and all the fixings.
Our eyes widened. The fajitas sizzled. Our
ears honed in like radar. The
passing skillet was hot enough to go physically detected. Taste would soon be ours.
But it was the smell, oh that signature whiff of Tex-Mex
heaven that truly caused premature salivation.
Sight,
sound, touch, taste, and smell.
Our five senses had been teased to the max by a simple menu
item.
 Now
the seemingly awkward transition to ice fishing… Fish behavior isn’t that much different.
The more senses you can appeal to the better your chances of
gaining a fish’s attention. It’s
that simple. On Ice
Tour cofounders, Chip Leer and Tommy Skarlis are big believers in
catering to a fish’s senses of taste and smell, particularly in
cold water situations.
We
interviewed an expert in hopes of corroborating On Ice Tour’s
point of view.
“In
cold water, the feeding moods of fish tend to be more neutral to
negative”, says John Prochnow, Berkley’s Product Development
Manager. “Their
metabolism is slowed, but the right scents and flavors can stimulate
a fish’s senses.”
John
Prochnow and his Applied Chemistry Department spent countless hours
researching the olfactory (smell and taste) senses of fish, and
Power Baits are the direct results of their efforts.
The team’s ongoing research and development is responsible
for continuous improvements in the product.
“Power
Baits are composed of compound structures and active ingredients
that fish really key in on,” says Prochnow.
“Each of our products is unique or species-specific.”
Let’s
break things down. The
larger classification known as “attractants” can be divided into
three categories.
Applied
Scents
Applied
scents are best described as manufactured liquids, gels, and pastes,
which are applied to lures
in order to enhance smell and taste.
Tommy
recalls an ice-fishing trip where an applied scent made the
difference…
“We
were fishing a river backwater that was chock full of crappies.
Our flashers showed stacks of fish in nearly every hole, but
those babies were tightlipped.”
“But
there was this secretive guy amongst the crowd who kept yanking up
crappies and cautiously turning his back to us while re-baiting. It was driving us mad. Finally,
I caught a glimpse of him squirting a little something on his
bait.”
“I
had to find out what that magic potion was!”
“After
some coaxing, he revealed to me a bottle of Power Bait Crappie
Attractant. I can’t
tell you how fast we jetted back to the bait store to get some!”
Prochnow
says that applied scents disperse quickly, even in cold water where
scent dispersion is naturally stalled by diminished molecular
action. Chip, Tommy,
and the fish they’re after, believe that Power Bait Attractants
are the most flavorful and aromatic of the applied scents.
“Because
of their rapid dispersal, Power Bait Attractants are best suited for
jumping from hole to hole searching for fish,” says Prochnow. “Keep applying more every few holes or so to really scent
things up.”
Chip
says, “Lures with fibrous feathers and hairs hold liquid
attractants like nobody’s business.
For panfish, I like to squeeze a taste of Power Bait
Attractant on a hairy Northland Spider Ant.”
Tommy
embraces the same concept when he jigs walleyes and crappies with a
feathered Lindy Fuzz-E-Grub.
Liquid
attractants can be poured over any ice-fishing lure, regardless of
what they’re made out of. But
Chip and Tommy have ways of making your
favorite lures more scent friendly…
Chip
threads a tiny square of sponge or strand of yarn on an ice jig and
douses it with liquid attractant.
The porous and fibrous lure additives hold scent and provide
time-released dispersal.
Tommy
sticks a thin strip of Velcro to the backside of a spoon.
Velcro’s fibrous composition also does a marvelous job of
holding and gradually releasing liquid attractants.
Preformed
Scents
Moldable,
chewy, colorful, and tasty are good ways to describe preformed
scents. These are the
manufactured morsels, which can be used as direct replacements for
live bait, as well as compliments to.
“Sometimes
panfish and perch strip away your wax worms or minnow without
getting hooked. But
they can be persuaded to strike again if there’s a chunk or two of
Power Bait still hanging on.”
To
combat the problem, Chip runs a couple of Crappie Nibbles up the
shank of a Northland Micro Minnow before putting on a live minnow.
Instead
of impaling the head of a minnow on a Lindy Rattl’r Spoon, Tommy
garnishes it with a savory Power Nugget.
This combination is lethal on hardwater perch, crappies, and
stream trout.
Prochnow
says that preformed baits are designed with longevity in mind.
Their effectiveness is maintained for longer periods than
liquid attractants, making them a better choice for sitting over and
working a group of fish.
“Crappie
Nibbles and Power Nuggets also come in sparkled patterns.
I believe this adds to their effectiveness in the clear water
conditions usually associated with ice fishing.
Their senses of smell, taste, and now sight
are being played on.”
Scent
Impregnated Plastics
Picture
a soft-bodied plastic worm. Inject
it with irresistible scent, and you’ve got scent-impregnated
plastics.
“Impregnated
plastics aren’t as powerful smelling as liquid attractants and
preformed bait, but their taste is equal and they’re even more
visually stimulating to fish,” says Prochnow.
Think about the eye-catching swirl of a grub tail and the
pulsating tentacles of a tube…
One
of Tommy’s favorite presentations for taking hardwater walleyes
and lake trout is a System Tackle Flyer, which is a horizontal
swimming jig, paired with a two-inch Power Grub. The
Power Grub’s rotating tail and vivid coloration lures fish in
while its scent and taste causes them to hang on.
“This
is a great package for jigging lake trout on certain Canadian
waters, where live bait is illegal to use, or for times when lugging
around a bucket of minnows is flat-out cumbersome.”
Chip
takes after lakers with a Northland Air-plane Jig, which has scent
holding bucktail hairs, and cloaks it with a Power Tube.
Power
Wigglers, which look and taste an awful lot like real wax worms, are
deadly on wintertime crappies, sunfish, and perch.
Chip
grabs a couple of Power Wigglers, which come from the factory linked
together, and hooks the tip of one on a Northland Jiggle Bug,
leaving the second one to wave and tease behind.
“When
you hook them this way,” notes Chip, “you get a lot of motion
from a relatively small bait. And
even if a short striking bluegill rips off the dangling Power
Wiggler, when he comes back for the second course, I’ve got ‘em!”
Tommy
uses a modified Micro Power Grub to urge finicky panfish.
“I
pinch off the tail and hook the curly part on a tiny ice jig like a
System Tackle Coped. The
itty-bitty tail billows and panfish are compelled to whack it.”
Dousing
a scent-impregnated plastic with applied scent is ice fishing’s
double whammy!
Deodorizing…Starting
out on the Right Foot
John
Prochnow just finished explaining how important smell and taste are
to cold water fish. So
isn’t it reasonable to surmise that eliminating or at least
reducing offensive bodily scents would be a beneficial first step?
According
to Tommy, “Lindy’s No-Scent Soap effectively eliminates
distasteful scents from your hands.
And I like the fact that it contains Lanolin, a moisturizer,
because wintry weather dries the heck out of my skin.”
Chip
pays special attention to keep unnatural smells off his skin before
hitting the ice.
“I
make sure not to handle cologne, scented lotions, or deodorants
before touching my rods, reels, line, lures, and bait.
Unnatural and manmade odors can really spook fish.”
Tommy
just hopes that Chip applies a little antiperspirant before climbing
into a portable fish house with him.
Successful
ice anglers learn how to stimulate each of a fish’s five senses,
especially smell and taste. And
smart ice anglers pack lunches so they aren’t famished and
weakened by day’s end, like our opening anecdote.
On
Ice Tour is an intensive effort directed at expanding the sport of
ice fishing. Cofounders
Chip Leer and Tommy Skarlis offer public seminars and kid’s
clinics; appear at in-store events; exhibit at sport shows and ice
fishing competitions; broadcast a weekly radio show and conduct
hands-on product demonstrations.
On Ice Tour produces an annual ice fishing publication (On
Ice), and they can be found on the Internet at www.onicetour.com
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