Why Fish Bite

fishing bait, scent, eggs, krill, attractant, lures, sight, smell, sound
We as fisherpersons in order to catch fish need to understand what it takes to persuade fish to bite our lure/hook.  We need to have the lure near/in front of them & to have it attractive enough to either fool them in to thinking is something they normally eat, or get mad at it & strike in a aggressive/defensive mode.

If anyone could predict exactly why & under what conditions each specie of fish would consistently bite a specific lure, they would be a millionaire very soon.

Rule #1.  Fish where the fish are.   This sounds rather basic rule, yes it is & I am not trying to be funny but just practical.  It my take some experimenting on your part, or it could just be following information as to where the best fishing was last week.   You can not however expect to catch salmon in a river in the summer if they are on their northern migration route & in Alaskan waters then, as compared to the fall when they are returning prior to spawning.   Fish will be where their natural instincts dictate & where the food is.  So at any other time other than their home to spawn timing, if you can find baitfish, like herring, anchovies, or shrimp, you will usually find larger fish feeding on them.

Rule #2.  The most important fundamental, if you want to catch salmon, or any other specie for that matter, the action of your bait or lure is important.   If you have good rolling and/or erratic action, you will have a much better chance of catching a fish.  When a salmon hits your bait or lure he is looking for dinner.  If your bait looks like a wounded struggling baitfish you have a much better chance of getting the fish's attention than a lively one.

Rule #3.   Salmon have three sensing mechanism they use to find their prey.   They are Sight, Smell and lateral line response Sound.  It will behoove you to use these to your advantage.

SIGHT-   If you are trolling and your lure passes within a few feet of a salmon and he sees it, you will probably get him to strike, may not catch him, but that is another issue.  The problem is that in the ocean and most other bodies of water the salmon can't see more than a few feet. This gets worse as you go deeper.  If you are relying on sight alone, you probably won't bring home many salmon.

Color of the lure can be very important.  Some colors change dramatically as they go deeper & therefore in darker water.  One is RED, that color is probably the first to change & to BLACK.  GREEN changes to a MILITARY OD.   BLUE changes to a DARKER BLUE.  However YELLOW appears to get brighter.  ORANGE changes to a DARKER ORANGE.  WHITE turns SLIGHTLY GRAY.  CHROME is still CHROME.

With the new Ultra Violet lure colors, there is a new game in town, as shown in the photo below.  This of course also depends on turbidity of the water.

Lure colors change at water depths shown below in the color spectrum, but with Ultra Violet lure colors extend considerably farther

SMELL -   The second sense is smell.  Salmon have an extremely sharp sense of smell, but if you are trolling a bait forty feet down and the salmon is at fifty five feet he will never smell the scent trail left by your bait unless he gets right behind it.  

There are inline scent dispensers that are used for trolling for fish that you insert a scent into.  They have small blades on the body to rotate the unit & small holes to dispense the smell.  They are used inline & are about the size of a ball point pen in diameter & a couple of inches long.

Many companies have been founded that produce fishing scent that is either injected into the lure or smeared onto the outside of it to produce a scent attractant.

Each specie may have a scent that they seem to prefer.  Like Chinook seem to like anchovy, garlic & or anis.  Chinook in rivers tend to prefer a "Hotter" roe cure, like adding sodium sulfite to the cure.

Lemon-scented Joy is one of the best grease-killing soaps available to the fisherpersons.
Next is to clean it with Crest — REGULAR flavor Crest toothpaste

One well known guide puts a little dab of this toothpaste on the lure and I rub it, cleaning the lure with it really good just prior to putting it back in the water.   It only takes a few seconds in the water & any smell left disappears.   He is adamant in using regular-flavor Crest.   CLICK HERE   for a full story.

For a link to a fish smell article CLICK HERE.

SOUND -   The third sensing mechanism is the one you want working for you.   Down a salmon's side and on his head and back there are tiny hair-like projections called cupula.  Each of these has a nerve cell at the end.  These cells are used to pick up vibrations in the water.  It is just like when you can feel the loud music when a teen-ager drives by with his radio music on loud. 

If a salmon is swimming thirty feet down and a school of baitfish swims across the surface above him, he knows exactly what's going on.   His lateral line cells pick up the vibrations made by the wiggling tails of the baitfish.  He doesn't see them or smell them but he knows exactly where they are, just like he is using radar.  If some of them are wounded and swimming erratically he knows he has his next meal.   This is one of the mechanisms you want to take advantage of.  If your lure is putting out erratic vibrations twenty or thirty feet from a salmon you can pull him like a magnet.   He will follow the vibration like a radar beam and attack your bait.  This is why we say action on your bait or lure is the most important strategy you can use. 

Lures like the Crocodile, Coyote spoons or the Apex plug put out the erratic powerful vibrations that will get you salmon.  Some of the newer spoons now have a small spinner blade attached to the rear at the same location of the hook, this creates more vibrations.  A trolled cut-plug herring creates basically the same vibrations as a wobbling spoon. 

When using the imitation squid lures that have no action on their own, they need to rely on a flasher for this vibration.   Whenever you put a bait or lure in the water you should carefully check its action.   If it is not rolling or shaking, don't let it down.  Sometimes the bait needs adjusting or a hook or swivel is lodged at a funny angle.  Another possibility is that your boat trolling speed is not right for the lure you are using.  Sometimes all you need to do is speed up.

Currently Pro Troll as come up with what they call an "E-Chip".  It is a small round metal tube that apparently inside on one end is a chip.  Inside this tube is a small steel ball.  The whole thing is then capped off & sealed.  What it is supposed to do is when the ball bumps the chip as the lure or flasher rotates or wobbles, it lets off small electrical impulses like a wounded or scared baitfish.  This is supposed to RING THE DINNER BELL. 

They make a flasher Pro Troll 11 & a Pro Chip 8, quite similar to the Hot Spot flasher & a plug called the Sting King, again similar to the Apex & a rotary helmet with these chips in all of them.

From what I have tried of these, believe me, they do out-fish the plain ones.

SIGHT, SMELL, SOUND ;  

Again these are the three main attractants in fishing, I repeat myself here, from the above, but it is important.  
          Sight  is any attraction by a flasher,  plus the lure itself.
          Smell   will be the use of natural bait or scent. 
          Sound   is created by the Flasher, and the lure itself, these create a erratic vibrations that may convey to fish that their buddies are attacking baitfish.  

For optimum results, all of these should compliment each other.  Most effective baits / lures try to capture this objective.

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Originated 6-05-2004  Last updated 10-01-2011
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