Why We Infuse Our Lures with Garlic Scent That Will Never Wear Off and Why It Matters

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" :)