Experimenting With Scent Attractors for Fly Fishing

There were several things going on during my fishing trip Saturday. One was trying to reach my 100 super bluegill quest, during the spawn, two was trying a land a quality Spot, and three was trying out a scent attractor on flies for bluegills and bass. The first goal I didn’t accomplish, because I think most of the big bull bluegill had move into deep water at least 30 to 40 ft. The second goal was missed with only one small largemouth brought to hand using the size 4 Boogle Bug. I discovered right after I launched the boat that the lake was falling contrary to what the report had said. Sometimes one can’t put a lot of trust in the generation schedule for Smith Lake. As most of you know water falling on any body of water can put a damper on the catch ratio. Fish tend to go deep during this period and stay deep until the water level stabilizes. I did manage to land fish but just not the quality bass.

Now for the third goal; I have said I learn something every time I am on the water and today was no exception. I wanted to try a product that claims to entice the bite for bass and bluegill so I had my small little bottle of bass attractant. I only used it on a couple of wooly buggers. I can’t say for sure that the scent attractor work to get more hits, but it seem to add a little more confidence on a slow morning. The attractant didn’t effect the action of the bugger because I didn’t add it to the tail of the fly, just the body. I didn’t try it on any dry fly. I am wondering if any of you guys have experimented with scent attractant on flies.

Sorry awful image but you get the drift with the Boogle deep in the throat the only bass of the morning

All of these guys were caught on a couple of small poppers, and the rest on the wooly bugger. I have to say none will qualify for my quest. They were a lot of fun on the 3 wt. As stated in the post the bass scent attractor was used and I would like to think it help me land more fish on an extremely slow morning-----falling water

Fishing With Scent Attractors

 What kind of role does scent play when you are fishing? For me as far as warm water fishing is concerned it is paramount in attracting fish. I know I have been on the water number of times and not catching fish and added a scent attractor to the lure and got the hit. This is especially true when I am using spinning gear. There are lots of attractor brands on the market, not to mention the scent impregnated plastic lures. One of my favorite is the crappie nibblet. I can add a tiny crappie nibblet to one of the hooks on my lure and get the fish to take the lure quicker, especially on those slow days. I have used the sprays and liquids but got away from those some years ago when I realized that the nibblet stays with the lure longer than the sprays and liquid, which usually washed off after numbers of cast.

As for trout fishing attractors, for me there is no substitute better than a well tied fly to imitate the real thing. I feel that using attractor would inhibit the performance of the fly. If you are really into using a scent attractor on your flies then try some mud at the bottom of the stream rubbed over your fly, that is about as close as I would come to odor on flies.

I am a firm believer in masking human scent especially when I am trout fishing. According to research trout have amazing powers of smell, in fact much, much better than humans. Let's say you have used Ole Spice aftershave the morning you are hitting the stream. You get to the stream and tie on your favorite fly and you immediately transfer the smell of the aftershave onto the fly. This sends an alarm to the trout that this particular fly is not real and in a heartbeat the trout is gone. I am not as careful masking scent in warm water situations but when it come to trout you are dealing with a fish that is much smarter and more wary of its surrounding, so you need every advantage you can muster to be successful. What's your take on the scent attractor factor when you are fishing?