Smelly Jelly on Lures for Wipers

[Trent_S]

Hello All -What is your opinion on smelly jelly applied to lures? I am interested in trolling for Wipers and I was just thinking that they are somehow finding a dark piece of mussel meat floating in the water column in spring time, they must have a great sense of smell. I am guessing that putting some shad smelly jelly on the lures is a good thing while trolling, etc. Comments?
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]All the fish in Willard respond better to "sweetened" lures than to stuff without flavors. As you correctly observe, wipers do follow their noses to find food, especially when the shad are too small or too big at any given time. They eat smelly stuff like mussels, cut up anchovies, nightcrawlers and even some of that nasty catfish bait. No class.

There are several good scents on the market. But I have done better with sardine, anchovy or Gulp Alive scent than with shad. It is a subjective thing. You gotta try what you have access to and make your own decisions.
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[Trent_S]

Pat - Very much appreciate you sharing your vast knowledge. Trent
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[Trent_S]

Hey Pat - You mentioned [#0000ff]sardine, anchovy or Gulp Alive scent. [#000000]As far as applying to crank-baits while trolling for Wipers in Summertime, what would be your personal #1, #2, and #3 use? Thx.[/#000000][/#0000ff]
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]I do not troll...from my float tube. But I do throw cranks and plastics. If you are trolling at the mach 3 speeds favored by wipers the addition of scent is less important than the depth and the action of the lure at the chosen speed. But scent DOES help not only to attract the fish but also masks human odors.

I use a lot of Gulp Minnows and always carry a squeeze bottle of the recharge juice in my vest. I have kinda moved toward it as my go to attractant for almost all lures...for all species.

That being said, I still carry shad, and anchovy scents...and use them. Also do well with crawdad. The latter can work especially well in the early spring when predators are chasing "mud bugs" when there are no shad in the food chain.

The best attractant is whatever you have in your tackle box that will cover the human (gas, sun screen, etc.) odors and/or help seal the deal for any fish investigating your lures. While there are days when one seems more effective than another, active fish usually don't show that much of a preference.

There are plenty of wipers, walleyes, crappies and cats caught from Willard "bareback"...lures with no bait or scent added. But then there are also days when they won't yawn for anything you drag by them, no matter how sweet you make your offerings.
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[Trent_S]

So if fishing crank baits in the summer, when would you choose the shad or anchovy smell over the gulp minnow recharge juice that is your "go to"? Assuming you have all three in your bag why choose one over the others for summer cranks?
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]No hard and fast formula. As with many things fishing it is a matter of personal feelings, guesswork and what is easiest to reach. There are times when almost any scent attractant will work. Other times they show a preference. Still other times it doesn't make any difference what you use...you still see more on the sonar screen than on the end of your line.

When I go fishing I try to have a good assortment of lures and a good assortment of scents. If the fish are really active and hitting well without scents, I don't bother with anything. But if they are in a neutral or negative mode, you have to keep changing it up to try to stimulate at least a reaction bite. Sooner or later the fish MIGHT vote for something and let you know what they prefer. But that doesn't mean that it will work on every trip in the future.
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