“How do you know when to use fish attractants/scents and do you think they really work?” Seems the subject of using scents comes up more often these days with my partners in the boat. If the same question came up a couple of years ago I would have said “I only use them to cover up unwanted scents the fish don’t like” a theory shared by many and written about extensively in articles. I even recently read an article that said no scent could attract fish and can only be used to mask unwanted odors/taste. But now my answer is, any and all the time I am on the water is when you should use fish attractants.
Although I am a “most time” Professional Bass Tournament Fisherman I also happen to live on the water of Padre Island and the famous Gulf Coast bays and estuaries. If I am not practicing or participating in a tournament I am spending time on the water in my back yard, so I am intimately familiar with the importance of natural forage (bait) and how important they are for attracting fish. Professional saltwater anglers and Guides watch for “slicks” in the shallow calm flats of the bays caused by pods of bait or other fish which is a sure sign of feeding Speckled Trout or Redfish. You also don’t need to have spent many hours fishing saltwater to know “chumming” is important to start and sustain a feeding frenzy or bring fish in from the huge expanse of water the Gulf and bays present. I have taken this experience from the saline infested water and used them as a basis for my maybe not-so-scientific experiments on my favorite lakes to prove out my theories (common sense really). Here are some of my theory’s I have proven out in tournaments and the tips and uses for this great new product.
Make your own bait fish pod/school; 90% of the fish are in 10% of the water and Bass follow the baitfish are two basic rules for fishing, but it is often tough to find both happening at the same time in the same place. Large schools of shad release huge trails of oils and scales as they move through the water and use pheromones to “communicate” danger to the school. It can be theorized that Bass and other game fish pick up on the trails to locate and track these schools of bait. You can create this same situation to pique the interest of the fish in your favorite area even in absents of bait schools or pods. When fishing your favorite “hole” or point and the fish seem to slow down or are not cooperating create your own school of baitfish to “swim” over your favorite spot. I have used this on several occasions to trigger feeding in areas I know regularly hold fish. Position your boat upwind or up current before you load up your favorite bait with Bio Edge potion in your local lakes favorite forage bait “flavor”. Holding the bait over the side liberally apply Bio Edge to your bait. The slick created on the water from the excess dripping from your bait will drift over the spot and generate interest from any fish that may be lounging around.
Bring the fish to you; This is another science project that has paid big dividends; as a matter of fact it got me a Division Championship in 2010. Many lakes have near impenetrable cover that can make it all but impossible to reach the fish holding close to the bank or deep in the heavy cover. Here in South Texas the thick Hydrilla mats often grow out several 100 feet from the bank; you can tell when the fish are holding there, out of your reach and it can drive you crazy and waste valuable tournament time trying to figure a way to get to them. Using the theories and techniques described in Making your own bait fish school you can attract (yes, I said attract) the fish to you. Load your bait with Bio edge potion working the outsides of the cover (I prefer the crawfish scent as I mainly use creature baits to flip the heavy cover). Work back and forth in a relatively small area the turbulence from your trolling motor, wind and wave action push the oils, enzymes and pheromones back into the cover. It will not take a whole lot of “ringing the dinner bell” to get the fish to migrate out to their feeding areas on the outside edge of the cover. So much for the theory that you cannot use scents as attractants.
Best invention ever or less is more… natural; Though Bio Edge may not be the original inventors of this type applicator the Wand is the most amazing scent applicator I have ever used. There is absolutely no mess or spillage, it stays where you put it and lasts much longer on your baits than other liquid scents. I talked earlier about those secrets the saltwater anglers use, the most savvy have a trick of taking the live bait shrimp and slightly splitting the back causing pheromones to be slowly release into the water that no self righteous game fish can resist. While other formulas cause an immediate huge slick when the bait is dropped into the water; the thick solid of the wand slowly leaches the oils, amino acids and pheromones into the water in a much more natural way.
Try some on your under arms ( That’ll mask some odor); The thick solid of the Bio Edge Wand not only is the least messy scent I have ever used, but also allows you to control the use/release of the scent. When flippin’ and pitchin’ creature baits apply a little crawfish scent from the wand under the “flippers/arms” of the bait. The bait falls to the bottom arms closed, every time you hop or jump the bait the arms spread releasing the Bio Edge scent at the time and amount you can control. This technique is extremely deadly on bedding fish as you can shake the bait slightly causing the arms to fan the natural oils and pheromones into the water driving the fishes senses wild.
It’s no longer just a “cover-up”. Forget all the theories and opinions you may have had and/or read about on the old “snake oil” fish formulas/scents, which may have rattled around in your boat only for those times you had to cover the odor from fueling the boat, lathering on the sun screen, or eating your bologna sandwich. The new 100% natural formulas from Bio Edge will become an important part of your fishing arsenal. Try some of these tips the next time you go out to your favorite body of water or experiment with your own ideas, it will make a believer out of you. Weather you fish freshwater, saltwater or both; Bio Edge has many attractants in dozens of bait types to satisfy whatever game fish you hunt.
