Can fish smell humans

[Guest Steve Burke]

Originally posted by Chris Sodo:

If fish can smell humans how come many of the best anglers I have met smoke like chimneys! Perhaps they're hooked on nicotine too.

 

Perhaps they're just good anglers who'd be even better if they didn't smoke!

 

 

 

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Wingham Fisheries

http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/fisheries/wingham.htm

[Guest kevin]

hey people this is a very good thought.in my experience,fishing for sturgeon with a cover sent like wd40 does make for a better day of it.we like to use shrimp sents and licerice sents when steelhead fishing.wich does prove to help[ with the fishing.but as my grandfather always said mother earth provides the best cover sents.rub your hands in the dirt around the area your fishing.makes sense.natural cover for every day smells

 

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gravelbuster

[Guest Adrian]

When Len Colclough (hope I spelt the name right) had his fly fishing shop in Guildford, Iwent there as a beginner asking advice. One of the first things he mentioned was the importance of masking your body scent. I believe he advocated rubbing hands in lake weed or mud. I guess this is especially important if you are trying to imitate a natural bait.

 

I tried rubbing liquid pellet into my hands last summer, it smelt so much my wife declared herself 'out of bounds'.

 

Cheers Adrian

[Guest Paul Williams]

Steve,

I find your statement that small fish "freeze" when threatened difficult to accept, the fry in the margins certainly move pretty rapid when disturbed by me or a perch on the prowl!!

I can't say i've ever seen a fish "freeze" as i've spooked it in many years of fishing!

[Guest Steve Burke]

Originally posted by Paul Williams:

Steve,

I find your statement that small fish "freeze" when threatened difficult to accept, the fry in the margins certainly move pretty rapid when disturbed by me or a perch on the prowl!!

I can't say i've ever seen a fish "freeze" as i've spooked it in many years of fishing!

 

Perhaps I ought to have put *some* fish freeze rather than *many*. If you watch carefully after most of a shoal of fish have swam away you can sometimes spot fish that have remained, although they're well camouflaged which goes to show that the escape mechanism works!

 

Having said that I wasn't referring so much to shoal fish but to individuals like loach and bullheads which, in my experience, use freezing very much more. This is why they can be caught by hand, although I have to say you still do have to be quick!

 

 

 

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Wingham Fisheries

http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/fisheries/wingham.htm

[Guest Paul Williams]

Steve,

In my experience the shoal move as one when threatened, i aint too bad at fish spotting and i aint seen loners left behind, after all why would one individual fish "decide" to do that? the others again in my experience as boy and man scoot for cover and then "freeze", if you disturb their new "hiding" place they will then scoot and hide again......my jam jar was always full!

[Guest waterman1013]

I found some years ago that if I was going out on a Saturday and using splash on cologne, I did not catch on Sunday. I started to use spray on cologne and caught. Now I nearly always mask body odour with bait flavours or a dirt rub. That is all but one odour.

 

Mike

[Guest mpbdsnu]

As I have said previously - an interesting topic, but at the end of the day - I don't think it is worth worrying about it!

 

We can go fishing, throw a handful or two of maggots out and start catching smaller fish, ie, roach, dace, rudd, perch, straight away! No probs! If we go for something a little bigger, I'm sure most would be using some form of groundbait and upon mixing the hands are so tainted with the smell for the rest of the day - any problems associated with the possibility of L-serine from the hands preventing us from catching is eliminated! Even without such groundbaiting the smells from meat, corn, paste, etc, etc, etc, will far outway anything emitted from the hands.

 

I also don't spray with deodorant (no comments thank you LOL) or splash with aftershave prior to going fishing, but thats so I smell like a poof! (Sorry to our gay friends, but I'm old-fashioned).

[Guest mpbdsnu]

Please insert the word 'DON'T' AFTER 'I' AND BEFORE 'SMELL' its not a Fruedian slip - honest!!!! LOL

[Guest Steve Burke]

Originally posted by Paul Williams:

Steve,

In my experience the shoal move as one when threatened, i aint too bad at fish spotting and i aint seen loners left behind, after all why would one individual fish "decide" to do that? the others again in my experience as boy and man scoot for cover and then "freeze", if you disturb their new "hiding" place they will then scoot and hide again......my jam jar was always full!

 

I think we'll have to agree to differ here. Presumably it varies from water to water, possibly depending on the nature and amount of cover, and the species.

 

I do agree with you that true shoal fish like roach tend to move together when spooked. However, species like perch react differently and sometimes a member of the shoal gets left behind. I find that it's then that they tend to freeze. I believe I'm right in saying that scientists have a different name for the two types of shoaling. Can anyone help here? Bruno?

 

 

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Wingham Fisheries

http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/fisheries/wingham.htm