No Bites
An occasional fish arch at forty feet prompted one line with a herring and two green Scent Strikers loaded with fish attractant at that depth. Another line was at ninety feet looking for a king salmon. It was trolling a herring with a single black Scent Striker loaded with the herring formula—no bites on either of them for the first two hours. The time had come to try new gear.
Trying something new can be a challenge. We often stick to tried and true because it worked before. On the other hand, change can be a good thing if we do so with good reason. Appanage Fishing’s Bait Set-up Triangle provided the reasoning framework needed to venture out and tie on a shiny new lure.
Optimize Bait with Three Elements
The Bait Set-up Triangle says that all riggings must have three essential elements to optimize fish-catching presentations – Sight, Sound, Smell. Catching a fish’s attention through sight cues such as flash, shape, and color means strikes. Sound is vibration and any lure that wiggles like a baitfish give off a sound signature that game fish sense (hear) and will respond.
Last is the smell. Lures that leave chemical bread crumbs for a fish’s nostril to detect adds more pizazz. Research shows that odors (fish attractants) will activate a fish’s food-seeking behaviors. Since we want to catch fish, we want them to notice and pursue our gear. Getting the most bang for our buck means paying attention to all the elements of the Bait Set-up Triangle – Sight, Sound, Smell.
The Reward
Finally, when it became time to try something new, I tied a new, never-used lure with plenty of baitfish flash and wiggle to the line’s end. A single Scent Striker Original in black was added in front of the spoon. The Scent Striker was dipped in the herring formula fish attractant to turbocharge my bait with “smell.” Down to ninety feet, it went.
Within ten minutes, an ocean-bright Pink struck. Landing the fish was fun. It pays to try new things once in a while.
Scent Striker, turbocharging all baits with that dinner bell smell.