Berkley MaxScent

[everythingthatswims]

I have fished with various MaxScent baits ever since their release last year, I actually got a head start on the rest of the fishing community due to Berkley giving us some baits at a college event before they were available to the public.

 

I have fished with The General (a stickworm style bait), The Flatnose Minnow (drop shot bait with a forked tail), the D-worm, and the Hit Worm. All of these baits have produced fish for me, and are definitely a bait worth fishing.

 

I am a big fan of The General. To me, the most important quality of a stickbait is the rate of fall that it has. Many low end stickbaits fall through the water column extremely slowly when fished weightless, which is rarely a good thing. The General has a faster rate of fall than most stickbaits, which is a big deal to me. I am not a fan of sitting there all day waiting for my bait to hit the bottom, not to mention that fish definitely have a preference for a faster falling wacky worm 80% of the time, if not more often than that.

 

The General also is a fairly durable bait, which tends to be a hot topic when people discuss stickbait/wacky worm fishing. I personally am more concerned with getting bit, but you can definitely catch 4 or 5 fish per bait with these. I'm not sure how much of a factor the scent provides in being successful with this bait, but it definitely can't hurt.

 

The Flatnose Minnow is another good one that I have been fishing with for a while. My friends in the college series are also big fans of the bait. It is a smallmouth killer! For whatever reason, smallmouth really like scented baits, particularly when you are fishing a slow presentation (being a drop shot in this case), and the MaxScent definitely plays a role in getting bit, I have seen it work well on very pressured smallmouth. One of my friends caught a smallmouth over 5 pounds last summer on a flatnose!

 

Two newer baits to me are the D-Worm and the Hit Worm. The D-Worm is a 5.5", slim profile worm. I fished it on a shakey head, drop shot, and weightless on a worm hook. All of those rigging methods worked, but I liked it most on a drop shot. I fished it in brush piles on a #1 worm hook, rigging it weedless. The bait only holds up to 2 or 3 fish per bait since it's so thin, but I'm totally okay with that if it gets bit! The slim profile of the bait combined with the slightly longer length than most drop shot worms meant that it still had very free movement even though it wasn't nose hooked. I caught a pile of fish on it too!

 

The Hit Worm is a 4.5" bait with a bulkier profile than the D-Worm. It fits on a shakey head well, and would be good for a larger profile drop shot too. I fished it on a Carolina Rig, it did pretty well for me. I could see it being a really effective bait on a C-rig around some brown fish, I just don't have any nearby to try it on! I would imagine the bulky profile would do a good job resembling a goby for anyone who spends time on the great lakes.

 

The only negative I can come up with has to do with color. There are a number of great colors available, but they are all very solid colors. I have a feeling you can't make a translucent bait with the material used to make MaxScent baits, because if you could, Berkley probably would have done it. My favorite color is definitely Baby Bass, if I had to pick one color from the MaxScent Lineup, it would definitely be that one.

 

 

[Way north bass guy]

I’m a big fan of the General as well. Been catching a lot of smallies on them wacky rigged, and largemouths while flipping into heavy weeds with a small weight, they slide right through the jungle. 

I’ve also become a huge fan of the creature hawg. It’s very much like the powerbait thief, which I’ve been using almost exclusively for pitching/flipping the last couple of years. Those creature hawgs have been getting absolutely hammered, darn near every bite is a big ole thud, which is about the nicest feeling you can get on the end of your pitching rod!

[Glenn]

I like the fact it doesn't have that strong, repulsive smell like regular Powerbait.  Durability is a bonus.

[Beetlebz]

I'm a big believer in the good old fashioned 7" power worm in motor oil or pumpkin seed. They get bit sitting on the bottom doing nothing at all. The only variation I make is I will sometimes switch to a rib snake to try to upgrade my bite if its lit up. I have spent hours looking at and researching these max scent plastics but the last thing I need is more styles when I only have one or two color choices for half of my plastics. This review helped alot! Theres alot of good info right there. Thanks.

[Dorado]

Solid review! Great read

[FryDog62]

I’m also a big fan of The General after years of using only the Yamasenko.  The General has a great sink rate, scent and definitely lasts longer.  Up North here the Copper/Orange is a great crawfish imitator.  Can’t go wrong with Baby Bass either.  

[burrows]

I really don’t see that much of a difference in durability to be honest I went threw half a pack I an hour of fishing yesterday.

 

[fishwizzard]

12 minutes ago, Burros said:

I really don’t see that much of a difference in durability to be honest I went threw half a pack I an hour of fishing yesterday.

 

 

 

Yea, I have found the same thing.  The General is a litte more durable then a senko, but not by much.  They for sure caught bass, but like my experence with Gulp baits, I can’t deal with plastics that have to be kept in “juice”, so I will not be buying any more.  I even tried them with o-rings and I swear it made them rip faster. 

 

I also bought a pack of their chunk trailers but really like them.  They are quite tough and they are porous enough to really hold megastrike once the factory sent has washed away.  I think I am going to use them a lot this winter once we hit the  “painfully slow dragging” period of jig-fishing. 

[snake95]

On 8/8/2018 at 7:21 PM, everythingthatswims said:

The Flatnose Minnow is another good one that I have been fishing with for a while. My friends in the college series are also big fans of the bait. It is a smallmouth killer! For whatever reason, smallmouth really like scented baits, particularly when you are fishing a slow presentation (being a drop shot in this case), and the MaxScent definitely plays a role in getting bit, I have seen it work well on very pressured smallmouth. One of my friends caught a smallmouth over 5 pounds last summer on a flatnose!

 

@everythingthatswims

Thanks for the super review.  Proof that sponsorship works, I've been looking for some maxscent baits since I read your comments, and the recent BASS tourney on the St.Lawrence.

 

In terms of compact dropshot-style baits, I could only readily find the flatnose minnow and the smaller hitworm. 

 

Picked up green pumpkin and shiner flatnoses, and watermelon red hitworm.

 

Planning to fish some clear Ontario ponds and fast smallmouth rivers with them.

 

What is the action on the flatnose like?  Stiff like a gulp minnow, or fluid like a Roboworm?  

 

Any rigging tips?

 

Many thanks for the comment.   Berkley has to give you credit for introducing the baits to me and my family!

 

 

[everythingthatswims]

6 hours ago, snake95 said:

@everythingthatswims

Thanks for the super review.  Proof that sponsorship works, I've been looking for some maxscent baits since I read your comments, and the recent BASS tourney on the St.Lawrence.

 

In terms of compact dropshot-style baits, I could only readily find the flatnose minnow and the smaller hitworm. 

 

Picked up green pumpkin and shiner flatnoses, and watermelon red hitworm.

 

Planning to fish some clear Ontario ponds and fast smallmouth rivers with them.

 

What is the action on the flatnose like?  Stiff like a gulp minnow, or fluid like a Roboworm?  

 

Any rigging tips?

 

Many thanks for the comment.   Berkley has to give you credit for introducing the baits to me and my family!

 

 

It's like a gulp minnow, nose hooked is the way to go, you can also thread it on a neko hook like some of the pros are doing now.