Thread: Can crappie smell?

I was always told you should never fill up with gas or check the oil in your boat on the way to the lake because the smell would get on your hands and transfer to the bait you are using and affect the fish bite. So I thought they can smell.

Originally Posted by Badgerloader

I found that crappie do smell if someone leaves them in a cooler for a few days.

Ask ReesGuide sbout that one

Not if pollen off trees has them all stopped up like the fishermen here .

I have been in a boat on a few occasions when 1 person wasn't catching anything and others were doing good,,,I have had that person not catching to cut his jig off and let me or another who was catching to tie on a new one and have them wash their hands in the livewell water and handle some of the fish and they started catching the same after that. Note that the only way I fish is Jigging brush, so this would make more of a difference than trolling.

Negative odors/taste imparted to a lure will IMO definitely kill the attack. Ever have some stinky slime algae attached to your hook on the retrieve? NO fish will bite the lure. If you soaked the lure in gasoline, I doubt a fish would come near it after investigating it up close. As far a attractants are concerned, the only effective attractants are from a live source such as a hooked live grub or minnow.

Lures (again IMO), don't fool crappie or any other species into believing they represent anything in nature primarily because their DNA recognizes real from artificial. (I didn't write the work fake because that would suggest a copy of something meant to fool a fish.) Sight and maybe vibration have everything to do with why fish strike - uncontrollably if only for less than 30 seconds - sometimes the only opportunity to catch a fish. Anglers simply provoke fish into attacking.
I leave fooling fish to lure advertisers out to convince humans that fish have an IQ higher than a rock.

In other words, what fish don't know can kill them.

Yes they do. Don't be afraid to tip your baits. Especially when catching is slow.

I believe Crappie and most any fish can smell, I have found using Berkeys Crappie nibbles work better than a bare jig, and a minnow tipped jig will out fish a bare jig. I must confess I fish for Bass during the Summer when I am too busy with work to get My boat out, mainly farm pond hopping, one of My favorite lures are Bass tubes, most are impregnated with salt and newer ones are coffee flavored, I ahve noticed when the bite gets tough and I have a older tube on, if I change to a new fresh scented tube the results are much better, case in point would be last week when I used two week old tube that was tied on my pole that I keep in the back seat of my pick up, it finally got too tore up to stay on the weighted tube hook, I changed it out to a 2.5" strike king coffee favored tube, the first cast I had a bass tear off all the skirt. So I do believe fish as in any animal use any and all of there scences to survive.

Originally Posted by Tom 513

I believe Crappie and most any fish can smell, I have found using Berkeys Crappie nibbles work better than a bare jig.

I boght a bottle of Berkley Crappie nibble (pink color) yesterday. It's great to know that those work.