“A local fly fishing club has an outing on an area trout lake. Everyone is fishing the same general area. They are using the same sink-rate lines, the same test leader, tippets, and the same fly patterns (the successful angler has given just about everyone in camp his hot fly). But the most successful angler just keeps on catching fish, while other fishermen report only spotty results. While the unlucky anglers may refer to this phenomenon as just plain “lucky,” there is usually more to it than simple good fortune. Strange as it may seem, skill may also have had very little to do with it. What one factor could have separated the have’s from the have-nots? A chemical called L-serine. The smell on your hands.”

wash hands

Sunscreen, pipe tobacco, cigars, food…it is a wonder, I don’t repel myself. At the end of a week of remote camping I have been known to repel the family. How about a biodegradable soap to wash the hands now and then, even out on the water. Smelly Jelly or some such stinky scent will no doubt detract from the human scent, but may I say after years and years of lobbing globs of eggs, sand shrimp or scented tuffs of yarn that I am glad not to have that perpetual smell on my rod handles, clothing, steering wheels and facial hair. So, wash the hands and perhaps that will assist in minimizing the human scent that spreads like a nuclear explosion beneath the surface.