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Squidgies S Factor Fishing Scent?


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1 hour ago, TENNANT said:

Has any one here had any luck using Squidgies S Factor Fishing Scent?  Or are there other brands that you think work well? Do you think it would be useful for squid?

Ive used it and it hasnt hurt cath rates

Heres a brief history of the development of the scent by Dr Ben Diggles -

"Of the 21 different products that I trialled, 19 did nothing and around 15 actually repelled the fish (i.e. they were less likely to take objects introduced into the tanks afterwards). "

Ben D
16-04-2008, 09:16 PM
Great to see some debate on lure attractants. Its clear from some of the replies here that there is a need for a fair bit of education on the matter. Basically I spend a lot of my time working in aquaculture dealing with sick fish which will not take their medicine, because the medicine tastes bad. Over the years we have tried various methods of masking the taste of some of the medications, and in doing so I have become quite well acquainted with how taste and smell receptors in fish work and what compounds trigger them. After trialling various fish attractants which are available off the shelf in the recreational fishing market, in the laboratory with aussie fish (aussie bass, bream, mulloway, snapper and barra, as well as others), I was not impressed. Of the 21 different products that I trialled, 19 did nothing and around 15 actually repelled the fish (i.e. they were less likely to take objects introduced into the tanks afterwards). All of the repellents were based on smelly fish oil derivatives of one sort or another. Other stuff that didn’t work fell off the test substrate used so fast I reckon the fish didn’t get a chance to taste it at all.

From this problem S-factor was developed. Over a period of 18 months in the laboratory testing hundreds of synthetic compounds and carriers on bream, snapper, barra, aussie bass and mulloway, I developed an attractant which is a balanced mixture of compounds designed to work in synergy while slowly releasing from the lure and triggering the taste receptors of aussie fish – in other words, they enjoy the taste and anything coated with the compound rings the dinner bell. To give an example of how effective this can be, I have coated soft plastics, hard plastics and even small pebbles with the attractant and thrown them into the testing tanks. The fish (all species) happily eat the coated items and in many cases the treated item comes out the back door 2 days later. Uncoated items which are otherwise identical are spat out within one or two seconds. This is the basic science behind the S-factor attractant that has been acquired by squidgy in their pro range.

So if the debate is on whether s-factor “works”, its a no brainer. There is scientifically rigorous laboratory data which says it does, and this is was backed up by a large amount of field testing by the squidgy team. I admit some of their results while using it have been remarkable. Bushy was originally a skeptic (he’d tried lots of the commercially available attractants in the past and saw no real effect), but he reported back that he had some days where he caught and released over 200 bream, all on lures using s-factor, when others were struggling to get a fish. I must say when I use it I notice I get more bites and the fish hold onto the lure longer, and/or come back to hit the lure repeatedly until they get hooked up. This means I catch more fish, but based on my past performances I’m not likely to hit a 200 bream day in a hurry. So to me this suggests that other factors come into play – s-factor will not manufacture fish when they’re not around, and angler skill will always play a role, but an effective attractant like S-factor on the lure sure will provide average anglers with a much better chance of hooking fish which they otherwise would never know were there.

Of course, no product is perfect, and like all products in the tackle industry there is continual development to make them better, that is why I asked those anglers who think S-factor is rubbish, please indicate why you think this is so. You may be surprised how closely tackle manufacturers monitor these forums.
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11 hours ago, yellow door 1 said:

S-factor on the lure sure will provide average anglers with a much better chance of hooking fish which they otherwise would never know were there

This year I have been fishing a lot for tommies on soft plastics. I fish mainly from Glenelg jetty and if you asked any of the regulars what they use, they all have S-factor in their pocket. Many have tried other scents but all come back to S-factor. 

Over the summer, it wasn't uncommon for a new angler to be fishing the exact same spot, with the same lures etc. and not catching a thing. One of the regulars will chat to them, ask if they are using scent, and then dab some S-factor on their lure. Then a few casts later they hook up.

Sure, you can catch fish with out S-factor, but it certainly helps. I think for beginners it's fantastic, because it helps them catch a few fish and they start to get a feel for how the fish strike and the lure and can start to develop better technique particularly when to strike.

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S-Factor, Pro Cure, Sax Scent, Berkley Gulp Gel and Slime are all scents I have used. A big thing for me is the UV factor on all of them plus the scent. Depending on what style of fishing or what target species depends on what scent I’ve used but all seem to do a little bit of something, even if it is a confidence thing.

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I like the "pro cure" range of prey specific scents - I dont think they are made from Aussie ingrediants - they used to just put little sticker with the Aussie names for baits over the top of the USA names.

Some successful Victorian tournament anglers use it without any sponsorship deals or financial ties clouding the waters.

But after re-reading Dr Ben Diggles' history of Squidgey scent - I'll be giving it another crack.

I wasnt fully aware of the amount of testing and trials it went through - I just remember guys jokingly refer to it as Chicken Fat

 

 

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The only scent Ive tested then not used again was the clear liquid "stimulate".

When that "Mark Berg" infomercial came out - talking about pheromones etc - I had to get some

My test was on hoards of tiny bream in clear shallows. I was watching them from a bridge. They were happy to peck away at my unscented lure but when I put the stimulate on, they were actually backing off it when I dead sticked the lure. 

I gave it a couple of hours, targeting different schools then never used it again. By the end of that session I was thinking they should explore this recipe for possible uses as a shark repellent😉

That was the first generation of ultra bite though. The clear stuff in the little rectangular plastic squeeze bottle.

Im aware some people liked it - but watching bream after bream back off it, made me think the Yarra bream didnt

 

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