Understanding Fish Triggers: What Makes Them Strike?

August 2020

There are various factors that cause fish to strike a bait. These include: Action/Movement, Smell/Scent, Reactive Strike (protect their young or territory). In this article I will cover the various strike domains for fish and how the angler can use this to their advantage.

Fish Strike Trigger 1 – Actions and Movement

It is understood that most fish are focused on action and movement as a factor in whether to strike a bait or not. Bass, Pike and Muskies are focused on various actions to determine what they will eat. There also are diverse types of actions that can trigger a fish.

A quick aggressive movement can help when a predator fish attacks a fleeing bait fish. This is an aggressive and fast action to capture a high priority food item. There are also actions and food sources that are easier and more efficient for feeding. It is best to vary the retrieve of a lure by increasing speed or direction which are solid strike triggers for fish.

There are also instances where a fast lure retrieve or an active swimming minnow is consistently ignored. Once the minnow either dies or falls it elicits and immediate strike. I recall an older fishing lure commercial for the Banjo Minnow, where the host said “Let it die, Let it die” which meant just stop the retrieve and let the bait fall naturally. This is highly effective. When I cull dead minnows from the bait bucket, and throw them in the water, when they gently start falling, very often fish immediate eat them. I use this technique with minnow imitating swim baits by pausing a standard retrieve to let the bait just fall as if it had died. This is a highly effective way to catch fish.

For Trout in moving streams, it is often best for the angler not to move the bait at all but let it drift naturally in the current to the waiting fish. Any movement in a stream can turn off the bite and fish will ignore the presentation.

Fish Strike Trigger 2 – Smell and Scent

It is common knowledge that Sharks have an extreme sense of smell and can be attracted by a drop of blood in extremely low concentrations. Per the University of Hawaii, “Sharks can smell blood from hundreds of meters away—in concentrations as low as one part per million (ppm)”. Obviously, Sharks have an extremely evolved sense of smell. How does this translate to other fish species and how can the angler leverage this for fishing success? The following chart describes some freshwater fish species and their sensitivity to smells and scents.

There have been scientific studies about the impact of scents on fish. John T. Caprio, a professor of Biological Sciences at LSU has published a number of research papers on fish and their ability to detect smells.

As we have determined that fish are sensitive to smells and scents, it is also true that certain smells are attractants and certain smells repel fish.

Attractant Scents

There are many scents of fish attractants including: Crawfish, Shad, Anise, Worm, Crab, Salt, etc. There are manufacturers that produce a wide variety of options in this category. As with the various “flavors”, there are also a number of types of scent deployment options including: sprays, jells, waxes, oils. Sprays are the easiest to use, but they do not last as long as the other types of scent.

Repellents

There are a number of scents that are known to repel fish. These include, gas, oil, sweat, sunscreen, bug spray, etc. It is best to keep these from becoming a factor by keeping your hands clean when you touch your bait or lure, so they are not transferred to the fish.

Do Fish Scents and Attractants Work?

From my view, fish attractants do supply an opportunity to catch more fish. I have seen multiple times where a bait with an attractant applied caught more fish than baits without any added scents. I have seen this proved out with a variety of species from Trout to Panfish to Bass. I believe that the key is that fish will hold onto a bait with an attractant longer and allow the angler a better chance of success. There is also the softer impact that the angler will tend to be more confident and fish longer when using attractants which will result in more fish caught.

Fish Strike Trigger 3 – Threats/Protection

Fish at times strike at prey to protect territory or protect themselves due to threats. This is most easily seen as nesting fish such as Largemouth Bass vigorously protect their eggs and offspring in the nest against any intrusion. They will strike at anything that physically intrudes on their nesting site. While I don’t condone catching fist on nests, this behavior can be leveraged in other fishing scenarios. I have seen many times when fighting a hooked fish that others follow and attack the hooked fish in an attempt to get at the bait. I have also witnessed where a larger fish attempts to aggressively strike at both the hooked fish and the bait! You can leverage this behavior by using 2 rods and attempt to keep a hooked fish in the water as you cast to the stragglers. Many times that attacking fish will be much larger than the primary fish.

I would be interested in hearing of your fishing success. Please send feedback or suggestions or fish stories. You can contact me by email [email protected].

Tight Lines … Captain P.