I have had some wonderful time fishing the aero puffs this year. I owe it all to Bob and his web page. My question is this; is there a hot scent out there? Is there a company that makes a better scent? Shrimp, herring oil, anchovie, anis? What the hottest thing up north? I fish SW OR. and we usuallu use Shrimp smelly jelly. Sometimes anis oil or herring oil, but not very often. Mostly shrimp shelly jelly, it seems to hold it's smell.

Love those aero puffs. ;-)

Whatever lure I usually use shrimp scent.(Even saltwater salmon fishing.) Just my preference. Remember scent is considered bait in artificial only seasons.

I've used several brands/flavors and have used some that were THE hot ticket all with the same results. Personally, I don't know of one that's better than the rest, but I like shrimp. Just my two cents.

Make that three votes for shrimp ...

Yeah...I hate to use shrimp as bait (just don't like using bait in general) but never leave home w/out my shrimp oil. It's no "magic elixer" but it helps get rid of my stink

And another vote for shrimp. Besides which, it makes my cats crazy when I get home.

One work on using any type of oil scent on jigs or aero-flys or aero-puffs , they will mat if they are made with feathers and loose their pulsating action. Best to use the scent on the line or attatch some yarn to hold the scent, don't ruin your gear with it.

I don't fish jigs. I do however fish aero puffs, and absolutely love them. I smear shrimp jelly all over them and have had no problems.

Areo flies are another matter all together.
I don't use oils on them, however, I do color the white syrofoam material with a colored marker marker, just to add more contrast. Seems to work well. I colored the black/purple aero fly bright red, had a great afternoon in clear water. I was fishing perfect aero fly water though. Slow holding areas with a small amount of lead. Slammed em'.

Thanks for the post

I have been using shrimp oil for several years with great success, but at the suggestion of a friend I bought a bottle of crawfish/anise oil made by smelly jelly. The first thing I noticed after opening the bottle was a more pungent or concentrated odor than the shrimp oil I had been using. I made the mistake of opening this first bottle in my car, and in a matter of a few seconds the interior of my car was inundated with this scent. I have had great success this year both in the rivers and in the saltchuck chasing Whidby steelhead, including my largest steelhead to date, a 42 1/4 inch pristine native mykiss that is still roaming these waters today.[I hope] I would highly recomend trying some, but dont open that stuff in your car or truck, especially if you are married. CROSS SOME EYES!

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[This message has been edited by sebastian (edited 04-07-99).]

[This message has been edited by sebastian (edited 04-07-99).]

Hey Sebastian, by "Whidby Steelhead" do you mean there are some rivers up there that get fishable runs of steelies? Any in the summer? My father-in-law retired to Oak Harbor and I'm always looking for excuses to get out of his house when we're up visiting. Care to let me know more? Email is fine if you prefer. No, I'm not looking for your favorite spots or anything.

Bruce

I'm guessing he means Bush Point, or wherever those other spots are on the beach where you can hit steelies on their way to the rivers.
The last time I tried that the wind blew so goddamn hard my spin'n'glo/hoochie combo would land on the beach behind me, with a backlash the size of a tumbleweed. I think I took a total of five casts (attempted casts) and then went home. It took my hands two hours to thaw.

Fish on...
Todd.

B.GRAY, there are actually no rivers on the Island, but I do know of two small spring fed creeks, one of which a small run of silvers is being reintroduced, sorry I cant give out that location and I dont believe it is even on a map. Todd, you are correct. Bush point is one of many beaches on whidby island that you can target a steelhead in the salt chuck. Unfortunatly 85 percent of the "steelhead beaches" on the Island are private access or privatly owned tide lands leaving only a few beaches accesable to general public. Thanks to few "drones"for ruining access to some great beaches for the rest of us. Garbage, urinating in front of houses, parking in none designated areas etc.is the cause of this. As you can imagine steelhead hooked in the saltwater are magnificent. A good percentage of steelhead that are entering puget sound to spawn in puget sound rivers travel along these beaches. they are entering from Juan de fuca and Goergia straits. a smaller percentage are going through Deception past to area rivers, making the park a hotspot certain times of the year. Fortunatly I have permision to fish some of the better beaches on the island and I am not going to give them up, sorry. there is a pamphlet available called "GETTING TO THE WATERS EDGE" that shows some public access beaches. I will let you guys figure out possible migration routes that will bring them in close enough to cast to. Remember, all Whidby Island native steelhead, year around have to be released, so bring a camera. CROSS SOME EYES!

I fished, rather sporadically, for salt H20 steelies fer several years and didn't really have any luck till I started using procure sandshrimp oil. Incidentally, my first salt water steelie was hooked after I used some Dr. J; when I arrived @the beach, before I rigged up, I smeared some Dr J on the thumb and forefinger of both hands. Don't know if it helped or not but I'm absolutely positive it didn't hurt. Never had any luck w/any of the smelly jelly products tho lotsa people swear by them.
I live on Whidbey Island and we used to have some great beach access which was ruined due to the aforementioned reasons. If you're ever out fishin and observe any of that type of behavior try to (politely-some people are just ignorant and/or stupid) educate the offenders or we will loose even more fishin access.

Roger

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[This message has been edited by RRR (edited 08-21-2000).]

shrimp is a good one. do like I did and next time yer at the store getting something look at all the scents and think about each one. and ask yerself "what would they recagnise as food" I was able to find a few of my favs this way. some that they don't even sell as fishing scent but I found at the super market.

I have found that steelies kinda like oil scents. don't know if it's the way it carries in water or what but they work for me. I have had most of my hook ups on shrimp. but I have just started playing with other scents so maybe in a year or so that will change.

good luck

dcrzfitter

You can call me carzy but I have used anise oil and a shot of tabasco with shrimp oil for steelhead and substitute shrimp with herring oil for saltwater. There is a reson for the tabasco (biological resons) you may laugh but it works just as well as any other special formula.