Does Human Scent Effect Your Angling Success?

[Todd Oishi]

Quote: "Experiments have shown that a chemical commonly found in oils from human skin is offensive, even repulsive, to some fish. The offending chemical has been identified as an amino acid called L-serine, which is more prevalent in light skin people than in dark-complexioned individuals. Other common chemicals also seem to repel fish. There include gasoline and oil products, sunscreen, nicotine, and insect repellent."

So my question is: judging by your personal experiences, how many of you consider this statement to be true, and if so... how many of you wear gloves when you tie your flies?

[Dejon Hamann]

Probably true.  But to what effect? Some of the best fly fisherman I've know were chain smokers.  2 or 3 packs a day.  It would seem the effect of scent would be most prevalent on slow drifts or retrieves where picky fish have ample time to inspect their meal.  Dry flies, stripped streamers, and nymphs in fast water less likely to matter, eh?  Btw, I caught a bass on a cigarette butt before!

However, I always try to eat a piece of ham while competing

Most kidding aside I find this to be an interesting and possibly volatile subject in the competitive fly fishing arena.  What is scented?  If you smoke 2 packs a day you are most certainaly imparting a scent.  Is impregnating the foam in your fly box with fish catching scent illegal?  Of course it is.  What about smoking anise scented cigs?  What about using natural fly tying materials like cat gut or seals fur that may have fish catching oils within?  

[Chris Smorul]

I used to smoke almost 2 packs a day but it did not seems to bother the fish any.  I can say for a fact that its a very bad idea to handle any petroleum product before fishing.  When I lived in Ohio I was walleye fishing with a friend out on Erie.  My friend was catching fish left and right and I couldn't buy one.  We were fishing the same color Erie Dearies at the same depth over the same drift.  The only thing we could think of was that I had gassed up the boat and has spilled some fuel on my hands.  Ihis proved to be the case because the next time we went out, I wore gloves when I filled the tank and had no problems later catching fish.

[Don Strandberg]

Probably a lot of truth to what your saying. I have heard that WD 40 actually is a fish attractant. I would not  recomend this by any means.
I also give my wets and nymphs a good soaking in my mouth. From time to time. I may be nuts. But it seems fish respond to human saliva. But just a hunch of mine no way carved in stone.

[Chris Smorul]

I think the WD 40 thing has something to do with the slick it puts in the water. 

[Nick Naclerio]

I've seen were guys fishing for sturgeon soak their bait in WD40. Like Don said though that doesn't seem like something we want in our rivers.

[Warren Weglinski]

The old WD-40 had fish oil in it.
The new WD-40 dose not.

[Ronnie Christie]

I am not sure that fish are so easily put of.  If you watch fresh water fish in a tank they suck in each others crap and spit it out.  However how do you explain the European coarse fishermen that use lots of flavours in their ground bait.  I know of anglers who take their flys from the bench and place them in a certain flavour crisp packet before using them.

Ronnie.

[Pete Erickson]

From what I have researched...most salmonoids are sight feeders first and foremost, that is not to say that they dont also incorporate feel(lateral line) and taste and smell...but they feed mostly by sight because of competition factors with other fish, i.e. there is not enough time to taste or smell or feel the quarry.

This probably explains why the top competitive anglers in the world can consistently catch more fish than a mediocre comp angler that puts cod liver oil on his flies.

Dej,

I love the ham scenario!  I remember watching an ESPN fly fishing challenge from Colorado several years back, where one of the competitors said that one day he was hungry during fishing and then pulled out a few slices of ham to eat, and then tied on a new fly and started catching fish...he said that he now "superstitiously" eats ham with his hands before he fishes, and catches way more fish than before!  Of Course he does! LOL

maybe we should come up with a new ham sandwich fly and call it the Momma Cass...   

[Chris Smorul]

The Momma Cass fly won't won't work, the fish will just keep throwing it up

[Pete Erickson]

nope

it will get stuck in their throats...

[Todd Oishi]

nope

it will get stuck in their throats...

Not a very "catch & release friendly" pattern...

[Rashed Abdullah]

The offending chemical has been identified as an amino acid called L-serine, which is more prevalent in light skin people than in dark-complexioned individuals.

That would explain why I catch more fish than the white dudes that I fish with!   

[Pete Erickson]

lol Rashed,

I guess that also explains why the Native guides always out fish me in the Bahamas!

[Dejon Hamann]

Which white dudes? 

The offending chemical has been identified as an amino acid called L-serine, which is more prevalent in light skin people than in dark-complexioned individuals.

That would explain why I catch more fish than the white dudes that I fish with!