October 26, 2011
By Ned Kehde
Capt. C.A. Richardson of St. Petersburg, Florida, has accumulated a lot of well-grounded empirical observations about the effectiveness of scents from his many days of guiding, competing in redfish and tarpon tournaments and creating his Flats Class TV show.
On October 24, he wrote the following comments in an e-mail:
"I absolutely believe that scent makes a difference with salt water fish.
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Especially species that use their olfactory senses to locate forage such as
redfish and flounder. During cooler months, when water temps temper the
appetites of many inshore game fish, gel scents such as Pro-Cure can
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generate strikes even from sight feeders like speckled trout and snook.
€¦ Anytime you can get a lure to appeal to more than one sense of a
fish, good things often happen for the angler. And, I'll even take it a step
further for negative fish by repeatedly firing a scented lure into the zone
and €¦ artificially stimulate a bite similar to chumming with live bait. In short, better to have scent than not to have scent."
