Special sauce.

[spot]

Today I was jigging with small plastics for perch and panfish and they were pretty crazy over them. Just to try something I put them in a plastic container a couple of days ago with some oil from canned tuna and let them sit.

I've used cod liver oil in the past with good success, but leftover tuna oil is definitely a big hit too... and basically free.

[Registered Kayak]

nice tip! i may just do that here in a few minutes

[mudchuck]

Interesting.

[fishy1]

leave it to spot. your just full of old fashioned ideas. ha ha keep it up and stick with the hand lines.

[spot]

Old timey ideas still work because fish have not invented a calendar, and they don't have access to Cabela's and Bass Pro shops to show them all of the shiny gizmos the fishermen could be giving them.

[fishingidjit]

Old timey ideas still work because fish have not invented a calendar, and they don't have access to Cabela's and Bass Pro shops to show them all of the shiny gizmos the fishermen could be giving them.

 

[spot]

I would imagine that most plastics taste about like they smell, which is strongly plasticky, and I would imagine that fish find plasticky flavor to be about as appetizing as I find it. I've been dipping plastic baits in cod liver oil for years but it's nice to know that there's something that'll work  that's freely available. 

[Troutmagnet]

And the tuna can be your meal on the ice too, like it was for me last evening! Wish I had saved the tuna oil before I left home. 

[troutslayer 23]

use gulp alive works amazing for me u can buy the recharge bottles of fluid and just keep some in  a container and dip the bait

[spot]

use gulp alive works amazing for me u can buy the recharge bottles of fluid and just keep some in  a container and dip the bait

Oh I know that there are lots of things out there that you can buy and that work. This was to point out that there's something out there that you don't have to buy and that gets washed down the drain when a lot of us make our lunch.

**

I remember walking through the lure aisles when soft plastics started to become a thing and seeing row upon row of plastic worms and then not long after there were various scents that you could spray on them. They had bubblegum flavor and peach flavor. I was told that the most popular was grape and I remember wondering whether anybody had ever thought to ask a fish what they actually eat and what it smells like.

In the summer I like to use soft plastic crayfish and fish for bass around a submerged rock pile I know of near [redacted] and the fish often spit out the untreated bait immediately while holding onto the ones that were dipped in cod liver oil. In the right light with clear water you can watch them rise up from the depths after the bait and inhale it into their mouths. If it tastes like they expected it to, they keep it in their mouths but if it doesn't they spit it out right away.

[Neksportsman850]

I went out trout fishing Friday with plastics, caught one and had many chasers. Went Saturday with Vermont made Smelt-Rite and caught three with 16" being the smallest. Very worth the 10 bucks.