Boating Stinks !!

[Jmorfish]

Well, that's what I'm trying to find out....and maybe get some of your thoughts and tricks for keeping the stink out....What I'm referring to is the stink I know I get on my hands...manually operating the choke on my big motor, manually positioning my trolling motor at my fishing spot, connecting the steering rod to both motors, manually starting up trolling motor.....that's a lot of handling stuff with grease and gas, and I know those smells will deter/void the bite....I have considered this the past few years, and have tried:  just washing hands in the lake water, using different soaps and then rinsing in lake water, using those flimsy disposable gloves before doing those start-up procedures and then still washing and rinsing before handling any of my fishing gear. Yesterday at Strawberry, in addition to the gloves during set-up, and hand washing after, I also tried rubbing some of the fish scent oil on my hands...maybe made some difference? Not sure yet, need more trips to test this added strategy...But with me doing all the set-up (my boat, my responsibility) I've  seen, ( to my fishing dismay), that my guests are often doing better than me!...and you boat captains know how that feels!...I know it's often just luck, but on those days when my side is getting outfished 5 or 6 to 1, I'm thinking something's wrong....and pretty sure I still haven't got all The Stink off......any thoughts? any 'sure cure' that works for you? Yes, I have an older boat that doesn't have some of the set-up conveniences, and right now just buying a new boat probably isn't in the picture..any other ideas, I'd like to hear....

[obifishkenobi]

Well, that's what I'm trying to find out....and maybe get some of your thoughts and tricks for keeping the stink out....What I'm referring to is the stink I know I get on my hands...manually operating the choke on my big motor, manually positioning my trolling motor at my fishing spot, connecting the steering rod to both motors, manually starting up trolling motor.....that's a lot of handling stuff with grease and gas, and I know those smells will deter/void the bite....I have considered this the past few years, and have tried:  just washing hands in the lake water, using different soaps and then rinsing in lake water, using those flimsy disposable gloves before doing those start-up procedures and then still washing and rinsing before handling any of my fishing gear. Yesterday at Strawberry, in addition to the gloves during set-up, and hand washing after, I also tried rubbing some of the fish scent oil on my hands...maybe made some difference? Not sure yet, need more trips to test this added strategy...But with me doing all the set-up (my boat, my responsibility) I've  seen, ( to my fishing dismay), that my guests are often doing better than me!...and you boat captains know how that feels!...I know it's often just luck, but on those days when my side is getting outfished 5 or 6 to 1, I'm thinking something's wrong....and pretty sure I still haven't got all The Stink off......any thoughts? any 'sure cure' that works for you? Yes, I have an older boat that doesn't have some of the set-up conveniences, and right now just buying a new boat probably isn't in the picture..any other ideas, I'd like to hear....

If your driving the boat, your catching the fish, why not just rotate and take turns reeling in fish, my guess  is that it has less to do with what’s on your hands than there’s usually one side of the boat that fishes better on any given day, whether because you tend to turn one direction more than another or it’s at a better depth than the other side because of staggering your depths. Just count the number of fish hooked and landed as the boat total and split the catch at the end of the day.

[RockyRaab2]

I keep a spray bottle on board. It is filled with 50/50 water and white vinegar with exactly two drops of dish soap. It cuts odors and light dirt better than anything I've tried - and takes those water spots off the boat and motor, too.

Spray on hands, rub a bit, and dry on a towel. Done.

[dubob]

. . . . why not just rotate and take turns reeling in fish, . . . .

BINGO!     

[Farmboat]

If this happens have the person that is catching the fish tie a untouched lure on your line. ( my guess is no difference)
I have seen days like you are describing but I believe it to have more to do with line diameters, line color, length of line out, lure action due to line flexibility, ect.
These are only a few other factors that play in when we are "fishing" and others are"catching". Just one man's opinion. Best of luck.

[Anglinarcher]

I have a friend that will only fish for King Salmon with black Nitrile glove on.  He washes his lures in the dishwasher using lemon dawn before the trip.  He is a great fisherman, but I usually out fished him.

People that fish with me claim I catch more because I am the captain.  Somehow it gives me an advantage.

I really think scent is highly overrated, but I have observed that on some occasions it is key, so....

Most soaps have scents to them.  In the day I use to buy fishing soap that had a fishing scent to them.  Now I get scent free, dye free hand soap in small pump bottles from the store.  Most people don't know that that soap is totally biodegradable.  IF I am having problems, and if I am convinced that is the problem, once my set-up is done, wet hands, small pump of soap, lather, rinse, don't touch oil surfaces.  

But, I like Rocky's idea.  I might give it a try.

[RockyRaab2]

BTW, you can get "cleaning vinegar" at the home improvement store. It's stronger than table vinegar, and cheaper - about four bucks for a half gallon.

My mix is great for getting fish smell from your ice chest or live well, too.

[jjannie]

BTW, you can get "cleaning vinegar" at the home improvement store. It's stronger than table vinegar, and cheaper - about four bucks for a half gallon.

My mix is great for getting fish smell from your ice chest or live well, too.

works great on that fillet board too!

[Kent]

Lava soap or baking soda.

[Therapist]

Wash your hands with a bar of Ivory soap. It is a natural soap, not a detergent, so it has no chemicals or fragrance in it. It also is bio degradable so it does not pollute the lake. Over the course of a day of fishing your hands get dirty and grimy, washing them keeps the odors away and your hands feel better, don' dryout, no lotion required. The vinegar/ water solution is ok, it will dry your hands out though !!! Don't use dish soap though, it is a detergent, has a chemical residue. Shave some Ivory soap from the bar into your 50/50 solution and shake it to dissolve .

Rocky, thanks for the tip on the cleaning vinegar, that will be better as a boat wash than plain white vinegar from the store !!

[RockyRaab2]

I use Dawn, which is supposed to be bio-friendly. At least for baby ducks...

[PAC12_AfterDark]

Lemon joy is what I use. PNW guys swear by it, it's never done me wrong.

[Jmorfish]

Tks all for great thoughts/comments...I'll try some of your ideas next time out...When I have 3 in my boat we'll usually take turns, and that works good, but when 2 of us, and my buddy has all his own gear, I'd rather he not use mine, or me use his to reel anything in....and then at the end of the trip we at least offer to even things up a little....That said, there have been times where I have let him reel in a couple off my rods where my side definitely was the 'Hot Side'...so there may be more to be said about a 'hot side'/'cool side' theory also... BUT, I'll still have a good spray bottle handy to get the stink off....tks again....

[Bduck]

Been using dawn for years. I have to clean the scents occasionally from lures & dodgers.

[Riverdogs]

Well, that's what I'm trying to find out....and maybe get some of your thoughts and tricks for keeping the stink out....What I'm referring to is the stink I know I get on my hands...manually operating the choke on my big motor, manually positioning my trolling motor at my fishing spot, connecting the steering rod to both motors, manually starting up trolling motor.....that's a lot of handling stuff with grease and gas, and I know those smells will deter/void the bite....I have considered this the past few years, and have tried:  just washing hands in the lake water, using different soaps and then rinsing in lake water, using those flimsy disposable gloves before doing those start-up procedures and then still washing and rinsing before handling any of my fishing gear. Yesterday at Strawberry, in addition to the gloves during set-up, and hand washing after, I also tried rubbing some of the fish scent oil on my hands...maybe made some difference? Not sure yet, need more trips to test this added strategy...But with me doing all the set-up (my boat, my responsibility) I've  seen, ( to my fishing dismay), that my guests are often doing better than me!...and you boat captains know how that feels!...I know it's often just luck, but on those days when my side is getting outfished 5 or 6 to 1, I'm thinking something's wrong....and pretty sure I still haven't got all The Stink off......any thoughts? any 'sure cure' that works for you? Yes, I have an older boat that doesn't have some of the set-up conveniences, and right now just buying a new boat probably isn't in the picture..any other ideas, I'd like to hear....

Sounds more likely that you lost your touch given all you've already tried  . Continue to wash your hands and then focus more on what's catching fish.

[Mildog]

Years ago I had a buddy who was and environmental geologist, he told me dawn is biodegradable and “environmentally friendly” it was his go to for cleaning and bathing outdoors. I use it for those purposes and it works well. I’m often worried about smells that potentially could affect fish in a negative way. I am very careful with sunscreen lotions and other potions aftershave etc. and always wash hands so none of it gets on lures or tackle. I even sometimes wash/rinse my hands with mud or moss from the lake, not sure it makes a difference but it makes me feel better and maybe more confidence.
A story I always remember, is once when my Dad, 94 years young West Point Grad Veteran (who I must thank for introducing me to fishing, which led to my career as well as a lifelong passion for fishing) was fishing at lake Powell for stripers about 30 years ago with a buddy with Anchovies (is there anything with more scent smell??)
My dad had caught a dozen or more and his buddy ZERO same boat same bait same technique. They were trying to figure out what could be making the difference.
My dad remembered and could still smell the aftershave which his buddy slathered on LIBERALLY that morning, if I remember correctly Old Spice of some variety. So my dad took his buddies line cut a few feet off, retied it with a new hook baited it up for him and instantly he was catching fish. So for the rest of the day he baited and unhooked his fish so he did not touch the line the caught fish equally the rest of that day. Next day no aftershave and washed his hands even rubbed the with some stinky anchovies!! Lol
I am convinced scents both good and bad CAN make a difference, more for some kinds of fish than others. So I try to have “clean” Unscented hands when handling tackle and lures.

But then I remember an interview of a bass pro that said you can pour gas in my tackle box and I will still catch more than anybody!!
Many Years ago ( maybe 40 years) a “doctor” May have been Dr white, not sure if my memory on his name is correct) maybe even an icthyologist did some research on salmon with scents , he came up with theory that human scent was similar to scents predators gave off and it could repel fish so he was a big believer in eliminating human scent on tackle. Short version, when trolling for salmon in the ocean he used “sterilized unscented “ gear, then some scented with the usual popular scents like anise, fish etc and then just for a flyer dunked some in the stinky dirty oily bilge water. He used under water cameras to monitor the reactions. To his amazement he had lots of interest and hits on the bilge soaked gear as well as the added fish attractants. Less interest in the clean lures??
One conclusion is that smell was an important trigger and as long as it wasn’t something that would repel them it was better that they had some smell, fish would potentially bite it to find out what it was ??
One of the great things about fishing is so many theories and questions it keeps us all guessing and trying to figure out that extra edge. Some things we may never know but we are sure we have it all figured out!!
Lol
Good luck tight lines and great catching to all!

[Jmorfish]

Again, I'm liking your thoughts and comments....Pretty sure all this will help a lot of guys/gals, not just me...

[liketrolling]

I think the driver most times catch's the fish and we count fish by the boat not by the the ones that reel them in and with big kokanee the net guy is the number one person.

Dodgers draw the fish in where they go from there ????  a lot of the time one side catch's all the fish.  I like to have one glow dodgers out, it may not catch any thing but it can bring fish to the other lures.  put a treble hook on your dodger see how many that catches. I only wash my dodgers once a month if that.
I see fish that are afraid of downrigger balls and dive to get away from them others go to them maybe it is the positive ion on the wire.
maybe a hot boat check the volts on the downrigger cable should be around 0.6 volts

---

BTW, you can get "cleaning vinegar" at the home improvement store. It's stronger than table vinegar, and cheaper - about four bucks for a half gallon.

My mix is great for getting fish smell from your ice chest or live well, too.

I use water and vinegar to clean my fish finders no soap. in a spray bottle

[Anglinarcher]

I don't remember which web site it was, it may have been tackleunderground.com, it may have been makelure.com, or even Lurebuilding 101 for all I can remember, but it was about 15+ years ago.

The site had a poll to determine the top 10 things lure builders considered when they made/fished with a lure.  Most of the time on this site I see color or scent talked about, but this international group of lure designers/builders considered those as number 9 and number 10 on the list.  Other things, like depth control, size, shape, action, etc., all ranked higher.

Now, making the top 10 on a list like that means it IS important, and that is why I try to keep my hands clean.  Ya, I agree, sunscreen is bad news, don't have it and you get skin cancer, have it on your hands and fish don't like it.  I have gone to long sleeve shirts, UV rated, I used the pull over face and neck mask before COVID, good hat, and fingerless sun gloves.  Still, I put some SPF 50 where my sunglass side arms are because my mask won't cover.  I do that at home, clean my hands with scent free, dye free soap.  

I remember something about the bass pro who said something like 'if the fish are aggressive that you could dip your bait in gas and the fish would take it'.  He is right, tried it.  But, if fishing is hard, sometimes something as simple anise with crawfish will work but crawfish won't and anise won't.

Larry Dahlberg of HUNT FOR BIG FISH fame always says you have to ask the fish what they want.  I guess he is right, every day, several times each day.  Certain trends seem to be true, and at least keeping sunscreen, and that breakfast burrito, and the nacho cheese chips, off your hands seems to always be a good idea.

But, yes, I have seen days when fishing on lakes in Washington where scent was not legal, considered bait, and catching that first fish was more difficult.  We than would rub the lures on the sides of the fish and that was "legal" and it worked.  LOL

[Ryno]

I tried out the "Pro-Cure Bad Azz Hand and Lure" no scent soap this year and it's pretty awesome. It's waterless with a pump, so it's convenient to leave in cup holder and grab a quick squirt to clean your hands after dealing with grime, sunscreen, etc. I ordered it from Amazon for $10. I've had a couple of buddies buy some too, and they're loving it as well.

Good luck, Ryno