Chemical fish lures

In this exercise, we test the efficacy of chemical fish lures in catching small fish in streams and lakes near the campus. These species are not necessarily sport fish, but any carnivorous species occurring in three different freshwater habitats. 

Chemical lures impregnated with prey scent have been developed for different species of carnivorous fish. Lures for different game fish species are supposed to contain different chemicals, although usually not revealed on the labels of the products. The artificial lures are made of cellulose ether, a polyalkylene glycol, plasticizers, and other chemicals, and are impregnated with amino acids. 

Chemical lures, based on feeding stimuli, are now on the market as odor-impregnated artificial bait. They are specific for certain predatoiy fish and are extremely effective (Schisler and Bergesen, 1996). Efforts to imderstand improving of feeding attractants and stimulants for economically soimd mariculture started early (Bardach and Villars, 1974). Another obvious application of fish odors is the use of waterborne male and female pheromones to improve spawning in fish in aquaculture. 

Predatory Fish Responses to Prey Odors (Chemical Lures)... 

Setting minnow traps baited with chemical lure for attracting predatory fish (top), and emptying trap into plastic bag for identification of fish caught overnight... 

We caution undue optimism regarding the quick discovery of simple chemical signals for an artificial lure system, especially if the candidate lures are compounds that are selected on the basis of human perception. Human perception is likely to be an inappropriate basis for sensory studies of other animals. For example, many procellariiform birds are attracted to the odors of a variety of fish oils and fish by-products (Clark and Shah, 1992). To humans, these food items have a distinctly fishy smell largely attributable to the... 

Putrefied animal matter hcis formed the basis for coyote attractants of possible value in pest control programs. Thus, a putrefied fish formulation has been used as a coyote lure and, more recently, attention has been directed to a fermented aqueous suspension of chicken whole-egg powder, developed initially as an attractant for flies (48). The odor components csf this material have been subjected to detailed chemical analysis ty Bullard et al. (49) and are reported to include volatile fatty acids (77% total 13 acids identified), bases (13% total, mainly trimethylamine, 9 amines identified), and headspace volatiles, including esters, aldehydes, ketones, alcohols, alkyl aromatics, terpenes and sulfur compounds (10% total, 76 compounds identified). Based on these data, a synthetic mixture, "synthetic fermented egg" has been formulated, composed largely of a mixture of ten volatile fatty acids (81%), together with a diverse range of amines and other compounds (50). This mixture was found to be as attractive to coyotes as the fermented preparation itself. The volatile fatty acid component alone was found to exhibit substantial coyote attractancy also (50,51). ... 

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