Is a Bass's sense of smell stronger than a dogs?  If so haw many times stronger?  Any info appreciated, I need it for a school report. ;D

I'm not sure that it is that a bass' sense of smell is better than a dogs...I think it has more to do with how scents travel through water.  In the air scents and odors are easily dispersed trough the air, and a dog's only means of tracking a scent are though scents left on physical objects.  

In the water, it is a different story because you aren't exactly talking about scents rather than oils, blood, and pheromones traveling in the water.  In a body of water that is relatively calm (i.e. not a fast moving creek or stream) these stimuli can linger for some time.

While I might not know the limits of a bass' sense of smell, I do know that a shark can sense a small quantity of blood for over two miles (that's impressive).

I don't know what comparison a bass's sense of smell to a dog's is,but in an article I read that they did a study on a bass's sense of smell.They took 1-200th of a scent and put it in a 100 gallon tank and the bass could smell it.That's pretty good I guess.

With the glaring exception of humans, most creatures of nature have an excellent sense of smell.

I don't know the answer to your question, but I fully suspect that a dog's sense of smell

is far superior to that of a bass.

Bass are predominantly sight feeders, whereas canines are routinely employed

to unerringly track prey, solely through their sense of smell. In olfactory studies using canines,

only humans that were identical twins tended to confuse the nose of a dog.

Roger

In the book "Bass Biology" authored by a researcher at Berkley, a bass' sense of smell is 10 times as sensitive as a dogs. Bass have "taste buds" also on their lips and between their teeth. This is one reason we as anglers should take care to present an appealing smell as a bass can sneak up behind a bait, suck in some water, taste the bait (water) and decide if it is something appealing. Of course the slower the bait, the more time for the decision.

It also stated that human, gas, or oil scents deterred the bass very little while soaps, deet (mosqito repellent,) and sunscreen were very repulsive. Garlic and salt showed little or no affect. Oil based scents also showed little affect as the bass could not absorb (taste and process) the product.

Hope this helps.  8-)

i remember reading somewhere that a dogs sense of smell is 10 times more than a humans and a bass is ten times better than a dogs   for the life of me i dont remember where i read that

I am not sure about all of the comparisons between Dogs, Bass and Humans, but I was told the following at a special Arson school that I went to:

Dogs smell in Parts per Billion

They can also smell multiple things at once.

For example, if you have a McDonalds bag with

a burger, fries, apple pie and chicken stix. The dog

could smell the burger and everything on it (mustard, pickles, etc),

they could smell the salt on the fries, the chicken and whatever is in an apple

pie all at the same time, but their brain can seperate it all.

I thought that was pretty interesting when I heard it.

JT Bagwell

Asking in the wrong place. Ask a fisheries Biologist in your local area. Go to your fish and game office and they can you direct you as to how to find one of those guys. Also, be sure that biologist is not employed by a bait and tackle or scent company.

If all this is true about a basses smell, what do you use to mask the smell on your hands fromm sun block and the like?

If all this is true about a basses smell, what do you use to mask the smell on your hands from sun block and the like?

What I use is called MegaStrike, it is an Amino Acid based attractant/concealer.

JT Bagwell

Bass Biology 101

A bass has a very small brain in comparison to the human brain. A bass isn't dumb, but it's not smart either by the human definition. A bass basically has three purposes in its lifecycle eating, surviving, and reproducing. Bass simply interpret environmental stimuli, then react to it. Bass are very territorial by nature, but also very alert to changes in their environment.This same creature is also capable of conditioned behavioral responses.

Dr. Loren Hill studied and documented conditioned behavior in bass while he was doing studies for the development of the Color-C-Lector

Bass are undoubtedly very complex creatures.

Reactions to any environmental stimuli including artificial lures can be directly related to three senses. These senses are mechanoreception (the use of their lateral line, hearing, and touch senses), photoreception (their use of vision), and chemoreception (use of their senses of smell and taste).

Biologically speaking, chemoreception is further broken down into two categories: olfaction (sense of smell), and gustation (sense of taste).

Let's analyze the subject matter of fish olfaction (their sense of smell). Bass have two nostrils on each side of their snout. One is the anterior nostril and the other one is the posterior nostril. Water will flow into the anterior nostril, over the olfactory nerves, and back out through the posterior nostril. There is no link between these sets of nostrils and their throat. As the water flows across the olfactory nerves, a message is sent to the brain, where the scent is then interpreted as either a positive or negative scent.As fish mature, their senses of smell and taste become even more sensitive.

Fish use their sense of smell in many different ways: to locate spawning areas, feeding areas, predator awareness, and even their schoolmates in open water.

Have you ever been catching schooling fish, then have one hooked deep enough that it was bleeding when you released it? Most often in this case, the school probably stopped feeding shortly after you released the fish. Do you know why the frenzied fish stopped? The schoolmate released a chemical known as schreckstoffen. Schreckstoffen is sensed by the other fish in the school through chemoreception, and interpreted as a negative scent by the brain.

http://www.bassresource.com/fishing_lures/thoughts_on_scent.html

http://www.bassresource.com/fish_biology/understanding_bass_fishing_2.html

(more stuff)

In the Book KNOWING BASS The Scientific Approach to Catching More Bass says that "the bass may be as chemically sensitive as a dog, but the dog probably perceives a lot more oders." this might help.

The schoolmate released a chemical known as schreckstoffen. Schreckstoffen is sensed by the other fish in the school

That sounds like a great name for a German beer  ;D

For example, if you have a McDonalds bag with

a burger, fries, apple pie and chicken stix. The dog

could smell the burger and everything on it (mustard, pickles, etc),

they could smell the salt on the fries, the chicken and whatever is in an apple

pie all at the same time, but their brain can seperate it all.

JT Bagwell

Once when I was playing in a band, my lead guitarist sent me to his house to get some spare strings.  Nobody was home at the time and his dog didn't like it one bit.  I found an empty McDonald's bag in my car and stuffed it over the dog's head and ran like heck.  It got me out of there without getting bit  

Have you ever been catching schooling fish, then have one hooked deep enough that it was bleeding when you released it? Most often in this case, the school probably stopped feeding shortly after you released the fish. Do you know why the frenzied fish stopped? The schoolmate released a chemical known as schreckstoffen. Schreckstoffen is sensed by the other fish in the school through chemoreception, and interpreted as a negative scent by the brain.

So, you're saying if sombody catches a schooling bass, they should wind up and throw it as far away from the school as they possibly can!?!?!? FORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(actually, i've heard of people unethically doing that after catching a bedding male bass)

So, you're saying if sombody catches a schooling bass, they should wind up and throw it as far away from the school as they possibly can!?!?!? FORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Or you could put it in your livewell for a while.

So, you're saying if sombody catches a schooling bass, they should wind up and throw it as far away from the school as they possibly can!?!?!? FORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Or you could put it in your livewell for a while.

Illegal livewell fish....  :-?

BREAKIN THE LAW!!!  

How do you figure.   If none are in the livewell and its a legal keeper of 14" or better, it legal in TX.   Unless you are on a slot lake, where anything under the slot is legal to keep up to five or as special lake regulations apply.