CHUMMING FOR FISH

By: Ray Hansen

Chumming – using some type of bait or scent at attempt to attract fish to a certain spot – has been used by anglers on both open water and frozen lakes for many years. I’ve seen some fairly unusual practices, and others that were simply clever.

Old-timers on the Fox Chain-O-Lakes in northeastern Illinois (and many other places, I’m sure) would eat hard-boiled eggs while fishing, and drop tiny pieces of egg shell into the water. Others swore by sardine tails dropped into the hole after eating the rest of the oily treat. I’ve also seen anglers eat sardines and save the tin with oil in the bottom. This was placed on the ice, and their lures dipped in the oil before fishing with them.

Using the “sardine scent” was a precursor to the practice of using commercially available fish attractant scent commonly sold in baitshops. In fact, some anglers squirt scent of one sort or another on their ice fishing lures as a standard practice. They hope that releasing the scent triggers a feeding response in nearby fish. A related practice is to place a sponge inside a small wire mesh enclosure and tying a heavy line to it. This is lowered down to bottom occasionally, in hopes of arousing fish to bite.

A trick I’ve used many times is to squirt scent into a storage container of “old-fashioned style” oatmeal flakes. The scented flakes are then tossed into the water a pinch at a time. They swing side to side while sinking, and release scent while dropping. Both the motion and aroma may be attractive to fish. They eat it too. I’ve found it in perch cleaned after the catch.

Sometimes things get a little silly. Life-long friend Duane Deno and I once dropped a few tiny pieces of his home-made venison sausage to the water while perch fishing on Little Bay De Noc in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We made a respectable catch, and of course he took credit for the feat, claiming that his sausage “was totally irresistible to fish” and that it would be “irresponsible for us to use more than a tiny amount, since every fish for hundreds of yards around would crowd into our spot”.

As strong as the bite was while we fished, I’m not sure he was totally wrong!

So chumming can add to the enjoyment you receive from a dayspent fishing. You do need to check local regulations however. Some places have restrictions on what is allowable, and of course you need to exercise common sense.

And bring along some venison sausage!

Copyright Ray Hansen, 2008