Does nicotine stop you catching?
Finally: is there proof as to whether smoking is not only bad for you, but your angling too?
Nicotine is known to be an addictive substance to humans but how do fish react to it? The main route in which carp will be exposed to nicotine is from angler's hands contaminating bait. If the question is: can carp sense nicotine then the answer has to be yes, along with all the other substances found in cigarettes such as formaldehyde and tar for example. But just because the carp can sense the chemical it doesn't necessarily mean it will be put off by it.
"I am aware of a particular scientific study carried out by a friend of mine for his dissertation at university," reveals fish expert and all-round top angler, James Anderson. "The study set out to see if carp were put off by the smell of cigarettes on fishing bait that had been handled by a smoker. It involved giving the carp two options of the same feed item, one that had been tainted with cigarettes and one that was not. The trial showed that there was no statistically significant preference of the fish between each one and these were with pellets that had been purposefully tainted with cigarettes and nicotine. While the results were not significant one way or the other, there did seem to be a trend towards the fish preferring the none-tainted bait although this couldn't be scientifically proven."
The results of this trial plus the amount for fish caught by anglers who smoke gives evidence towards that fact that carp are not severely put off by the smell of nicotine. The amount that may be transferred from fingers to bait may be quite minimal. Fish may begin to associate a certain smell or taste with danger so it is possible that if a fish got caught on bait tainted by nicotine on a regular basis then if could be put off. There is nothing to suggest that nicotine may put fish off any more than the smell of soap on hands for example, but as a rule, try not to have any strong smelling scents on your hands when handling bait and you shouldn't go far wrong.
What Terry Hearn thinks...
"I've always washed my hands before re-baiting, but I'm not sure if it matters that much. A good example comes from a match angler I used to know. He was a heavy smoker who didn't believe it put the fish off, so he was actually blowing smoke over his double maggot hookbait, then trotting it through the swim and catching just as many.
"I still look at everything in percentages though. I can remember years and years ago, a mate of mine, Pinky, had a cold and he had some medicine, but it was stinking and he had it on his hands. I can remember him going mad about it and washing his hands all the time and then saying, 'well, even if it's only 1% in my favour, then all the better.' I could see his point, and have thought along the same lines every since. So, no, it doesn't do you any harm in washing your hands before baiting."
