The predatory fish we're after target prey with a variety of
senses, sight, smell, feel(vibrations through lateral line) and hearing by
detecting vibrations through the otoliths in their brains. Triggering all of
these senses ultimately gives you the best chance possible of the fish finding
your lure and convincing said fish that your lure is prey worth
eating. In this article, we're talking about our signature garlic scent, and
why it matters.

 

At this point, it's really no secret that
scent absolutely matters in fishing, especially with lures, there's
no debating it. However, not all scents are created equal:

• some
  scents hurt
• some
  don't matter
• some
  are a huge attractant to the finned quarry you're chasing

 

IF you're someone that questions scent's effect on fishing,
then no worries, let me enlighten you a bit, with some scientifical data. 

 

First off, scent, like light, behaves totally different in
the underwater world than it does in the atmosphere we humans live in (more on
how light behaves underwater here).

 

In the gaseous atmosphere we inhabit, scent disperses rather
quickly, lending to our limited sense of smell. Some air breathers though, have
developed an extraordinary sense of smell, take dogs for example, who's* sense
of smell is 10,000-100,000X stronger/more accurate than us humans, due to 50X
more olfactory(scent) receptors in their nose and a 40% larger part of the
brain that interprets scent than ours.

 

*Yes, I refer to dogs as 'who', if you don't see them as
little people, I don't think we can be friends..

 

Those are some pretty staggering numbers, yet they
still pale in comparison to fish. How strong you ask, is a fish's
olfactory sense?

 

Are you ready? 

 

A fish's sense of smell is 1,000X stronger that of a
dog's, which is 10,000-100,000X stronger than ours, meaning fish are
able to smell approximately 10,000,000-100,000,000X better than us humans. That's
ten MILLION to a hundred MILLION times better. 

 

Pretty insane huh? 

 

Try arguing that scent doesn't make a difference now, I'll
wait.. 

 

Anyway, that brings me to what I touched on in the beginning
of this article. There are positive, neutral and negative scents that fish have
been proven to react to. There's a great book called "The Scientific
Angler," by Paul Johnson, that goes way more in depth into these studies
and the findings, but basically here is a brief list of positive, neutral &
negative scents from those decades' long studies.

 

Negatives: Repel fish.

• L-serine
  (human skin oil)<-this one's HUGE
• Nicotine(for
  all you cig smokers, just don't.)
• Petroleum
  and all  its derivatives, including gas and motor oil
• Sunscreen/Suntan
  Oil
• Bugspray
• Chemical
  plasticizers added to soften plastics (we use plastic for our
  lures that's hard AF btw)
• Scented
  soaps

Neutrals: Have little to no affect on fish.

• Alcoholic
  beverages
• Anise
  oil(This is a big one that lots of companies tote as making a difference,
  it really doesn't.)
• Natural
  vegetation (grass, leaves)
• Human
  urine
• Chlorinated
  water
• Cokes
  and fruit juices
• Nonscented
  soap and biodegradable detergents

Positives: Attract fish and encourage bites.

• Fish
  extracts, including herring oil
• Baitfish
  guts
• Fish
  slime*
• Natural
  bait (including juices from worms, frogs, crawdads, leeches, and maggots)
• Milk
  and some dairy products like cheese(kinda weird but true)
• Human
  saliva(keep using it to wet your knots, it helps)
• Garlic(This
  one is not in that book, but has been proven since to be an attractant)

 

*Some fish slime can be bad, like if you get fish slime on
you lure from a fish that eats the fish you're trying to catch, the fish you're
trying to catch will obviously avoid that scent.

 

Airborne particles from some of those things can also get on
your line/rod/reel and repel fish, like bug spray, spray on sunscreen, or even
storing your fishing gear in the garage next to the gas can you keep in there
for your mower can riddle your equipment with fish repelling scents, so be
conscious of where you store your gear and be sure to scrub your hands with
some un-scented pumice or salt scrub before tying knots or handling your
lures/gear. 

 

So, as you can see, it's not about just having any
scent, it's all about having the right scent. And once you
got that scent, it can't just be a superficial coating of oil that wears off in
a few casts, it's gotta be infused into your lures, in a permanent
way that won't wear off, otherwise, what's the point?

 

Side note: All those sprays that just lightly coat your
lures and come off in 2 casts are total scams and the companies
selling them to you know it, y'all need to quit freakin' buying them!

 

Some sticky gels do a decent job of staying on lures
but they still need to be re-applied. 

 

The garlic scent we infuse into our lures is pungent and in
there to stay, its infused into the plastic itself, not just a coating on the
outside, so it will never wear off, you can literally put our lures through a
washer/dryer cycle and they'll still smell like garlic afterwards. 

 

In conclusion, having the right scent infused into
your lures, like our garlic scent, makes all the difference in the world.
It helps fish find your lure, it masks negative scents you might've
gotten on your lures and it also masks the taste of the plastic which
makes fish hold on longer, giving you a much better chance of not only
getting bit, but feeling that bite and reacting to it with a strong hookset, ultimately
resulting in more fish landed, which is the goal right?

 

Catch ya on the next one,

 

-M

 

P.S. - I put a lot of effort into these posts with the hope
that they actually help you, and I can't tell you how much I appreciate you
reading them! Since you made it this far, I'd like to hook you up with free
shipping on your next order just use code "GARLICKYGOODNESS" :)