By Bill Monroe
DOG GONE IT!
Just lost my WD 40…
OK, ok…Back up a bit…
I was in a boat the other day with Brent Lackey and his dog, Sage. Brent said he knew what many of us have heard – salmon don’t like dog scents.
That got me to thinking (uh-oh Bill).
I’ve heard it before, but why dogs?
An extended session with Dr. Google didn’t yield a canine-specific answer, but turned over all kinds of other rocks, including one perhaps better left as is/was.
Lots of scents get blamed for empty creels, including humans, dogs, other mammals and (here’s one uh-oh) petroleum distillates and products.
WD40, found in many, perhaps most, fishing boats, contains some petroleum distillates and products.
Tons of the magic lubricant (yes, actually, it can be used for that) have been invested in the search for a magic elixir and if bananas can be bad luck, WD40 is a go-to antidote, right?
(Dr. Google probably doesn’t fish much.)
But that’s not the end of demons lurking between gunnels.
Many other scents also repel salmon and steelhead.
A primary culprit carried by offensive mammals is a molecular devil, an amino acid known as L-Serine, which is apparently present in not only humans, but also (wait for it again) DOGS and other mammals.
Some humans have more than others. White males are apparently loaded with it (explains ALL of my troubles hooking fish), while white females may not have as much and people of color have even less.
Among the other repellents Dr. Google coughed up were nicotine, bug sprays, scented and perfumed soaps, sunscreen and anything petroleum (gas, grease, oil, diesel, etc.)
Oh, and fish guts, blood, etc.
Many, MANY, years ago, the late Bill Luch, one of the original stalwarts of the Association of Northwest Steelheaders, told me (and maybe others) about watching schooled steelhead from a hiding place on Russian River shoreline in northern California.
As he watched his favorite fish (he wrote a book about steelhead), he also noticed a boat upriver, with someone who began cleaning a caught fish.
As the scents of blood and guts reached the schooled steelhead below him, they immediately scattered.
So yes; it makes a difference.
One study in the late 1970s described the reactions of salmon in a fish ladder when blood and viscera were introduced above them. Some literally turned and tried to jump out of the ladder.
That makes perfect sense to Marc Johnson, a PhD-holding (Oregon State Fisheries and Wildlife) fisheries geneticist working for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Johnson also wants to know what repels salmon and steelhead, albeit for far different reasons.
He’s involved in a critical research project with the Oregon Hatchery Research Center, which biologists hope will result in a hatchery-specific scent to draw hatchery adults back to their natal stream and into the hatchery without attracting wild fish.
“The hypothesis is river water through the hatchery smells like the river,” he said. “But if we add smells in the hatchery, will they bring fish back into the hatchery?
Baby salmon and steelhead use odors as early as egg stages to imprint their home.
However, high stray rates from coastal hatchery fish into wild spawning grounds is cause for concern.
As for a salmon’s ability to smell, yes, it is exponentially better that that of a dog, which, of course, is exponentially better than ours.
Salmon, however, have a far lower range of odors they can detect than mammals, but they don’t need as many receptors.
They’re genetically tuned to avoid predators (us, sea lions and DOGS), blood and guts and other agents containing certain chemicals.
“Serine is one,” he said. “It’s all over our fingerprints, and yes, DOGS. Fish are hard-wired that that’s a predator.”
Johnson added they also sense odors produced by distress in other other salmon.
So what’s an angler to do?
Long ago, Lemon Fresh Joy was a magic serine eliminator and I still have an old bottle in my boat. But bored chemists re-arranged “fresh” and changed the formula. Their Madison Avenue handlers ended “Lemon Fresh” while retaining what the chemists told them is a better lemony flavor and now call it “Ultra.”
The result?
It’s become an ultra-repellent for fish.
I did find a couple bottles of the old “Lemon Fresh” on eBay, but the asking price was $55. Or $24 for one bottle that was three-quarters full.
There are a number of angling-specific soaps and concoctions available in stores and online, but while I believe they do work, probably the best you can do is wear nitrile (non-scented) latex-free gloves.
Especially if there’s a DOG aboard, which is fine because who’s going to tell their best friend he or she can’t come fishing anymore?
(But I am going to try to wean myself from WD40!)
