Ladyfisher brought it up. What do the other fishermen do? I will just throw out a few stories featuring the more unusual things I have heard or seen.
First there is WD 40. Top walleye guide on Lake Eire sprays down his rigged nitecrawlers with this before setting then out. Salmon trollers who work the mouths of northwestern rivers do the same with their crankbaits. If we remember that WD 40 was developed as a cleaner, that may tell us why it works.
In contrast with those who clean "skunked" lures, founder of the well known lure company, Tom Mann always went out of his way to reuse plastic worms on which he had caught fish. He believed each fish he caught deposited some very attractive smelling slime on his bait.
Taking an oposite tack, legendary structure guru, Buck Perry used to dip Spoonplugs in gasoline and procede to catch fish. This was to prove that game fish are site feeders and that scent had no place in his set of important controls-depth, speed, size, color, action.
Moving back to fly fishing, Dave Whitlock recommended throughly scrubbing flies with stream bottom muck to clean them and make them smell like their environment.
These are the most unusual ones I have heard, and they lie at opposite ends of the spectrum. Since these practices come from successful anglers, there may be something to them. I don't think the specific practice makes the difference. The person who pays attention to these details probably is well focused on fishing and pays attention to a lot of details. That "whatever it takes" mindset makes the difference.
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