Do body odours contaminate bait?

Shaun Harrison

“I have no doubt whatsoever that carp detect us on the baits we handle but personally I don’t bother to try and hide mine from them as I am convinced they like it. Others aren’t always so lucky though. It was so noticeable back in the old paste fishing days when every bait was kneaded and formed between our fingers that some anglers definitely carried taints that repelled the fish. But I have seen this taken to the extremes where one angler would no longer handle his own hookbaits but would get a friend to mould his paste around his hook. Food for thought for a few perhaps? It certainly explains to me why some always struggle to catch.”

Mat Woods

“I can’t say I suffer with BO myself! It’s not something that bothers me too much. Some of the best anglers I know always smell of Coleman fuel, cigarettes and cheap aftershave, so if it makes that much difference I’d be really surprised. All our terminal tackle is plastic, lead, etc. What I smell like is the least of my problems!”

Duncan Maclean

“I don’t believe our body odour could taint a bait strongly enough to have a negative effect, and so it’s not something which really concerns me. I am careful with mosquito repellent sprays and coils however, and rinse my hands in lake water after applying it and make sure I hang my boilies in the air-dry bag well away from the smoke from the coils.

“Catching consistently in angling is a percentage game, getting every little aspect in your favour, but to be honest I’m far more concerned about getting my bait in the right place than worrying whether my body odour is affecting it!”

Simon Crow

“I’m massively concerned about body odour tarnishing my baits. I’ll always rub my hands in lake water and then sediment from the lakebed to try rid any smells that might spook the fish. Our senses are less defined than carp and we can smell fish very easily so imagine their reaction to a bait which is masked with a certain smell which they relate with danger. It may make no difference whatsoever washing my hands like this but it certainly makes me more confident.”

Julian Cundiff

“If it’s just what my body produces naturally I worry not one iota, as in Guns and Roses speak, “worrying’s a waste of my time”. In reality it would be impossible to fish properly, as I’d have to wear gloves all the time if my skin naturally excretes something carp don’t like and frankly I don’t believe that. The background smell when you cast out far surpasses any natural smell you may have. That bait will be in a natural environment, full of bugs, silt, weed etc. NOT on a natural laboratory tabletop!

“What I do avoid is fuel and cosmetics on my skin when I touch baits and I always wet my hands in the water before I start fishing – that’s about it. Sometimes we can’t see the wood for the tree’s…”

Gary Bayes

“Usually I go fishing straight from the factory so my hands smell of bait but I’m always wary of smells from gate lock lube, car, tackle and me. Hookbaits, dips etc. go in one pocket in my bag, away from gas bottles, coffee etc. I usually set the banksticks up (usually covered in mud) avoid touching the landing net (could be full of fear smells) wash my hands in the water and then crumble some baits up in my hookbait touching fingers before baiting the rods up, avoiding all contact with anything that could contaminate my baits. Why risk yet another blank with contaminated bait?”

Lewis Read

“Some things in fishing are all about good habits – and though I have never seen any empirical scientific evidence to suggest that carp are repelled by traces of human body odour it is a taken that wild animals will naturally shy away from the smell of a predator – and in terms of fishing that is us anglers.

“Before I tie rigs or when I first arrive at a lake, I will wash my hands in the lake’s margins and if there is any weed present that also gets scrubbed on my hands at the same time. As I normally glug my freebies with a light glaze of Aminol I always crumble a bait or two in between my fingers to help mask ‘my smell’ with that of the bait. It might help – it might not – but there’s no harm in taking all precautions to make sure we’re fishing as well as possible.”

Iain Macmillan

“It’s a relevant question for me this one due to the fact that most of the time when I’m angling I tend to smell like something that’s just walked out of the bloody Duty-Free shop! Seriously though, this debate has gone on for years, and in truth I do think there are certain smells and odours that you really don’t want anywhere near anything to do with your end tackle. I stopped using a petrol Coleman years ago because of the very nature of what you need to power the thing. I just wasn’t comfortable with getting my little trotters anywhere near the stuff.

“I do still smoke and by handling my hookbaits I’ve found this has never made a dent in my catch-rate. Would I catch more if I didn’t smoke? Well, I suppose we’ll never know that. I know I saw Frank Warwick actually putting his whole rig directly into a kettle before casting out because he was that paranoid about his odours contaminating his rig, but if it works for Frank then who am I to argue? The only thing I do take with me at all times is a small bottle of the hand sanitizer, this is more for keeping my well groomed hands nice, soft and clean though!”

Jason Hayward

“To be honest, I’m not particularly concerned with body odour contamination. Of course I wash my hands properly if I get anything with a pungent smell on them such as petrol, oil or such like, and I don’t go smothering myself in aftershave before I go fishing, but apart from observing good hygiene habit it’s not something that concerns me. If you’re blanking and you really believe it’s down to your body odour tainting your baits, then either wash your hands or take up golf!

“A couple more thoughts… Firstly, this subject is probably more of a concern to soap dodging full time anglers! And secondly, years ago back in the day, before the hundreds of different flavours were available, it was a much whispered secret that a few of the Kent lads were doing very well using the old aftershave Brut! (ask your dad about the smell) in their boilies.”