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Actually those "pits" or pores you see lining the edge of the underside of the lower jaw are their olfactory sensors which they use to identify something in the water that might be edible or elicit a positive or negative response to their surrounding environment (fight/flee/mate). In the true sense of definitions the term smell is based on odors or scents that are airborne which our mammalian sensors detect and report to the brain. Since a fish's environment is liquid, their sense of smell is technically more like tasting and their various sensory organs are tasting "flavors" in the water like taste buds. As an oddball comparison, a snake "smells" the air with its tongue and taste buds to interpret its surroundings.I suspect that a pike's sense of "smell" is quite acute at least at times and perhaps most tuned in to pheromones associated with locating a receptive female/mate during the spawning process in dense vegetation or murky and stained waters. Now you know why a pike will frequently nose right up to a stationary bait or spearing decoy without striking it. Sniff sniff. I haven't really checked other fish species closely to see if they have these same pit organs but they may be unique to the pike/pickerel/muskie clan. Catfish and carp have similar organs only theirs are external appendages (whiskers) covered with sensors for "sniffing" out their food. Since a pike's and catfish's head design doesn't allow looking below them without tilting their bodies down I suspect this is an evolutionary adaptation to "cover their blindside" below them.
this is a great thread, is there anywhere you can buy herring oils or other attractant to add to baits since herring are naturally filled with thos odors that pike seem to love
Smelt Rite by Ridge Runner Scents.
They have a sense of smell, but from what I have read it is poor. Eye sight and their lateral line is their primary means of finding prey.