Additives and scent baits

[Old Smoothound]

Hi all,

During my time as a coarse match fisherman i really got into using additives with my groundbait and maggots, usual stuff way back then it was tumeric for maggots and flavourings for groudbait. Flavouring your baits seems to be the "Norm" now what with commercial carp fishing boilies and the like.

My pal from Scotland came to see me today and he used to fish Peterhead and up there they would freeze mussel baits on the hook, that had been soaked in pilchard oil and cod liver or roe oil.

Do any of you use flavourings with your baits for sea fishing or have you had experience in experimenting with them.

I would love to hear from your thoughts on the subject as I am thinking of trying a few out this winter.

Looking forward to reading your posts.

Cheers
Shaun

[fishypaul]

hi shaun,i suppose this links(slightly)with the thread i recently posted about using boilies,i too have often thought about scent and additives.
in the past i have used pilchard oil,yes that horrible smelly sticky stuff that gets everywhere when it leaks.
I tried soaking my lugworm baits in it,
I used to have a yoghurt pot full of the stuff sitting on the beach and whilst double-patting i would stick the hook baits in the oil before i cast them out.
I didn't see any different results so i gave it up.

there was a theory not long ago about spraying your baits with WD40,it was supposed to be beneficial,i'm not sure
perhaps the article was written on april 1st ?

[JuanPablo]

i too have heard the WD40 trick - apparently dogfish love it and its a good match-winning tip. So many different people and angling publications have said it works so I actually tried it. While struggling to catch anything but a suntan on the rocks at Rhossili in August I sprayed loadsa the stuff all over a big fillet of mackerel and blasted it out to see what happened. Now I love the smell of the stuff so if I was a fish I would gorge myself on the fillet - if you dip it in a rockpool after spraying it it releases an oil slick but disperses quite quickly...
Incidentally I caught nothing on the fillet but wasnt a fair test as the only fish of the day was a smoothhound on peeler crab.. nice suntan though!

I have also had pilchard oil leak in my tackle box - the smell is irreversible and the box had to be thrown! It wreaks! Dont get it on your hands whatever you do! It smells so much like fish that it really must work but as fishypaul has said - is it really worth it??

[Norfolkboy]

I've tried WD40 before, it was on a day where i caught 22 fish in a few hours, i sprayed lugworm twice, on both times, caught fish, a small dab and a whiting, it doesn't deter them, but i was catching on the baits that weren't sprayed too, so you can't say it had any more effect than normal

[Ben]

i once thought about freezing bait on hook with oils n stuff but i couldnt b arsed cause i woould need even more hooks n wasnt sure if the line was upto it

[JuanPablo]

interesting point - wonder what would happen to amnesia in the freezer?!
besides - baits such as lug (ungutted) and rag dont freeze well - the guts crystalize and expand when they defrost which bursts the worms...
freezing peeler to hooks would be worthwhile doing i guess..

[Ben]

could get very good bait presentation, squid would work well as well iif you think about howmuch stuff comes off them when you defrost em

[pingu]

been freezing any left over bait lately and going to try using a feeder for the flatties
seemed a cheaper way and made me feel better than just chucking in bin
mind you if it dont work going to do that anyway

[JuanPablo]

hey ping i have found that dabs really like stinky old lugworm and so cant think why flounders would be any different. may be worth not even freezing it and just nurturing them outside for a week!

[Ben]

i have a habit of leaving bait in my cool bag out side the bk door for a week by acident n by the next fishing the trip it smells to much to carry down to the beach, the amount of times i have nearly threw out cool bagfs cause of it