This was brought up in another thread so I figured I would start a thread on it. My experiences with this was many years ago and was while catfishing.
It killed a good bite for us and it did not take long to do it. Our first set up was before dark (pre bug spray) and we did really well. Once the polls that were baited first caught fish or had hits they were re-baited (after bug spray) and that bait never got a single hit. Each of the first set poles had either caught a fish or lost the bait from a missed fish. We figured the bite just turned off and moved after several hours. Moved up the lake and fished for hours with no more bites. On our way out he next morning we saw a boat in the area we had left several hours earlier. They were anchored off, we asked them if they had any luck. There reply was, had a very good night. I asked them what they were fishing for ( I already knew from the location and there set up). There reply, catfish, they had caught around 20 cats in that hole in just a few hours. My next question was what did you catch them on and they were using the same bait that we had been using, cut creek chubs or shrimp.
We left the reason at being they had better luck that we did. After talking to more veteran fisherman and reading on here years later about the affects of foreign scents like gas, sun screen, bug spray, etc. I have no doubt that the bug spray we had all over out hands from the practice of spraying or hands and then applying it to our faces had been a major contributor to our lack of success that night in a hole that continued to produce fish later in the night. Yes, maybe we gave up on the spot before we should have. I can say I have had much greater success in year since I started being more careful what I had on my hands when handling my bait and gear.
What are the thought of others about this and if you think it's all just in my head?
Also what to you guys use to remove any type of scents from you hands?
I am very careful about getting things on my hands but it does and will happen.
Thanks
David
It killed a good bite for us and it did not take long to do it. Our first set up was before dark (pre bug spray) and we did really well. Once the polls that were baited first caught fish or had hits they were re-baited (after bug spray) and that bait never got a single hit. Each of the first set poles had either caught a fish or lost the bait from a missed fish. We figured the bite just turned off and moved after several hours. Moved up the lake and fished for hours with no more bites. On our way out he next morning we saw a boat in the area we had left several hours earlier. They were anchored off, we asked them if they had any luck. There reply was, had a very good night. I asked them what they were fishing for ( I already knew from the location and there set up). There reply, catfish, they had caught around 20 cats in that hole in just a few hours. My next question was what did you catch them on and they were using the same bait that we had been using, cut creek chubs or shrimp.
We left the reason at being they had better luck that we did. After talking to more veteran fisherman and reading on here years later about the affects of foreign scents like gas, sun screen, bug spray, etc. I have no doubt that the bug spray we had all over out hands from the practice of spraying or hands and then applying it to our faces had been a major contributor to our lack of success that night in a hole that continued to produce fish later in the night. Yes, maybe we gave up on the spot before we should have. I can say I have had much greater success in year since I started being more careful what I had on my hands when handling my bait and gear.
What are the thought of others about this and if you think it's all just in my head?
Also what to you guys use to remove any type of scents from you hands?
I am very careful about getting things on my hands but it does and will happen.
Thanks
David