Marine critters are very sensitive to smell and it is thought the WD40
washes off the human oils that smell bad to fish.
Other oils can also attract fish. One experiment was tried by dipping
herring in a dirty bilge, They caught more fish. Novice women fisherpersons
often do better than their male counterparts. Perfumed hand lotion?
Dungeness crabs are particular about their food. Red meat is out! Chicken
and other birds (gulls?) are in as are other crabs (smooshed) and clams.
Fish (and crabs) are also very sensitive to electricity. A downrigger wire
improperly setup can drive salmon away. It has to be slightly positive to
the boat ground. Crabs will not enter a pot that has bare base metal giving
off electrons (hot pot)
G

" JimH" not telling you @ pffftt.com wrote in message
. ..

"William Bruce" wrote in message
. ..

My question is..........do you think an odor of rust on the lure body
will
keep fish from hitting these lures? If I soak them in the sink with
dishwashing soap will that leave a worse odor on the lures that the
fish
will stay away from?

Jim:

Rusty hooks, sharpened with a hook whet rock, have never seemed to
produce
any less for me than new ones in the Gulf trolling for Spanish and King
Mackerel..

TIA!




So I guess I am worried about nothing. Thanks.

BTW: I did read a suggestion from a site on the net that said soaking
them
in a vinegar and water solution for several hours removes the rust and
that
the odor from the vinegar is not a concern. I tried it and it works
great.
I am also going to give the lures a spray of WD40. I have heard that
stuff
is a great fish attractant and it also protects the lures and hooks from
rusting. ;-)