A couple of years ago I discovered a new sturgeon bait. Tired of using high priced smelly jelly and the like, I used cheap, house brand mustard on the smelt. The sturgeon looked it. A friend fishing beside me in another boat saw what I was using and found some taco sauce packs in his boat ant tried that. It worked just as well. Both left a scent trail in the water to draw the fish in. The mustard being a little oily seemed to stay on the bait better. No more high priced attractants.

Interesting find. Are you marinating the smelt with the mustard? Or just putting it on in the boat?

I just apply the mustard in the boat the same way that I would the smelly jelly. I try to squeeze some into the smelt as well as coating some on the outside. It is easy with the squeeze bottle type of mustard.