How Can I Attract More Fish and Get More Strikes?

Skipper November 5, 2007 Ask The Skipper

E. Shifflett asked:

I want to attract more fish. Will cleaning my lures result in more strikes?

Answer:
For your convenience, I’ve highlighted the hyperlinks. Click on the hyperlink to get more information about the selected product.

Yes. Compared to humans, fish have an incredible sense of smell. If they find the scent on your lure disagreeable, they will avoid it or just nibble at it to see if there is anything good to eat in your offensive offering. If the fish is hungry or upstream of the lure, they may strike anyway, but using clean gear will definitely increase your number of strikes.

It has been proven that fish will try to avoid smells like humans, machine oil, grease, paint, glue, plastics, soap, etc. In addition to contaminated lures, they will avoid the smell on hooks and even a line that has traces of machine oil on it from your reel. After cleaning lures, hooks and their line, pro fishermen will often wear gloves to prevent re-contamination when handling their lures and bait. Fish bait scents can also be helpful, but for greatest effectiveness they should be used on clean lures, rather than as a mask for contaminated ones.

A good way to clean your lures, and hooks is in a 1: 4 solution of Boat Clean Plus and water. Slosh them around in this solution just before casting. The cleaner will strip scents and oils. It is free rinsing so that the water will wash it off, along with the offending scent as your lure is being pulled through the water. New lures and hooks can be soaked in a stronger solution, 1 : 1, for about 20 minutes and then rinsed and left to air dry. Pro fishermen have seen their strikes increase by as much as 25% using this procedure.

Monofilament lines, rod eyes and the reel spool can be cleaned by wiping with a cloth dipped in the Boat Clean Plus solution. At the end of the day, the remaining solution can be used to clean dirt, slime, salt etc., from your rods and reels. Keeping them clean will extend their useful life.

Thanks for your question,

Captain Aurora
Richard Kittar