Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruce Litton
However, since the lake has minimal current, it begs the question--how do fish smell that liver catfood at a distance? I don't mean they don't. I just wonder how, or even if. But if herring nearby get interested and swarm, hybrids can certainly sense that school by lateral line. And if nearby hybrids swarm, same. Also, they may smell herring, at least up close, which may be part of the reason why they're better than shiners, because of high Omega 3 fatty acids, oil they can scent. That is debatable, since scales protect the herring, but I'd be willing to bet scent is subtly involved.
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Hmmm...good question. I don't know.
Theoretically, even in still water the scent will eventually disperse by the process of Brownian Motion. That's the slow dispersal of a material suspended in a liquid (or gas) by collisions of molecules of the surrounding medium. By this theory, the molecules that form the scent of the chum should keep expanding from its source until it reaches equilibrium throughout the entire body of water.
In reality there are probably other forces at work expediting the expansion of the scent such as the oils in the chum being buoyant in the water, causing them to separate and rise away the solid particles in the chum.
The herring might be producing a scent in the water. Some fish release a scent when they are stressed or injured that serves as a warning to other fish that there are predators active in the area. This may also draw in other predators looking to get in on the action.
Here is an article about it:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/29/he...-too.html?_r=0
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