Hello!

I've recently adopted a cat, her name is Harper.

 

This got me to thinking, if pet scents whether its a dog or cat or whatever, affects bass fishing. I fish a lot of soft baits, and have a ton of bags laying around sometimes. My little cat is curious and I've caught her sniffing and trying to mess with the soft plastics (no hooks around).

 

I know some scents may affect fishing, just never really thought about the pets in the household.

 

Anyone else ever think about it?

Thanks

my dogs will smell my bags when they go in the garage but shy away once they get a whiff. my older dog will almost gag and vomit.so I don't worry about them getting into my baits.

My cats run from the scents on my soft plastics. But mono and fluoro will get chewed on and strung thru the room.

No I haven’t thought about it yet, but this forum is extremely well read on the effects of cologne on bass

 

1 hour ago, rgasr63 said:

My cats run from the scents on my soft plastics. But mono and fluoro will get chewed on and strung thru the room.

Lol, my cats been doing the same 

I leave worm bags in a milk crate under my console and they've been broken into by something several times.  Birds, squirrels, racoons?

Probably 'coons.  Sneaky, mischievous critters.  I had some solar lights set up down on my pond...  They come up missing.  Found two lights down in the woods a few nights later. If it's food, they'll figure a way to steal it. 😆

There's lots of studies out there about the how scent affects fish. I believe Berkley did the largest study for bass specifically. They said that sun screen and bug spray repelled fish more than anything else they tested, which included everything from gasoline to MaxScent. Apparently, fish will run from the area when those two scents are introduced.

 

I try to be careful about keeping most foreign smells off my hands when I'm handling tackle. If I think I may have gotten something on my hands that could deter a fish, I'm more likely to add scent to any baits/lines I touched. 

13 hours ago, Alex from GA said:

I leave worm bags in a milk crate under my console and they've been broken into by something several times.  Birds, squirrels, racoons?

That happened to me in Michigan at a rental cottage, I had that gulp stuff and the owners dogs ate the bottle and ripped thru all the worms I had put it on 😂 

I can’t blame the dog. Gulp really is delicious. 

If the scent of cats scared bass, my catch count would be zero. 

I don’t think Ms. Puss is causing any loss of hits or bites. 
I don’t mess with gasolines or oils prior to fishing. Take care of all that stuff the day before. To me it may be the biggest of scent issues or what may be the most offensive to fish. Just my assumption. 
There is always some type of soft soap or an unscented bar on the boat. Gets used and convenient.