As I’m sure you’ve read before, fish don’t hibernate in the winter and are cold blooded so their metabolism is determined by their temperature. The colder it is, the less active they are. If you are going to hit the water in winter and risk life and limb or freeze your butt off, you need to do everything you can to increase your chance of success.
Scent and Sound For Winter Bass
To increase the likelihood of bass taking your artificial bait, start adding scent and sound to your offering. The more senses you can engage to entice bass to feed, the more likely you are to catch them.
I must confess that I was somewhat skeptical about scents and attractants until I gained a better understanding of the olfactory systems (sense of smell) of fish. Baitfish and crawfish that bass feed on are composed of amino acids, and as we learned in biology these amino acids are the building blocks of all protein.
Each fish contains differing proportions of these… amino acids. An injury of a baitfish will release more of the amino acids into the water and triggers searching behavior from the bass. This is why some of the quality scents that contain amino acids are more effective than others. This is nature’s reaction to the release of amino acids.
Bass and other fish have a pair of nostrils, called nares, on each side of its head they use to locate food as far away as 25 feet. Because scented baits release such a large amount of scent in an area it makes them even more effective in cold water. However, many pre scented baits will lose effectiveness quickly because they disperse the scent as soon as they hit the water.
The problem with this is in the winter anglers must fish the bait more slowly. A slow moving scented bait is needed to build a scent cloud in relation to the structure being fished. The area with scent will draw nearby bass in. Tubes will hold a lot of scent and can be used to fill the area with scent to attract bass. By releasing more scent into the area you will increases the size of the strike zone.
With gel scents the attractant can be added to hard baits, like cold water jerkbaits and will last longer in the water. With formulas like those used by Attack Pak Fishing in their soft plastics, scent will disburse slowly and last as long as the bait does.
Sound at times can be one of the most important factors for a lure presentation. Anglers use rattles for many baits from jigs to tube baits and soft plastic worms on a shaky head jigs. Many of the hard plastic lures have some type of noise. When fishing at night, in clouded water after rain or after the fall turn over can be the best time to add a rattle to your lure presentation. Source
Next time you are going to brave the elements and catch winter bass, keep the sound and scent in mind to increase your odds of catching and not just fishing!
If you are drop shotting, try these hooks made specifically to retain scent: click here
