Soft Plastic Scents/Flavors - Science or Gimmick

[Bartableman7]

How do you think the lure manufacturers determine if their scent is the "way to go"?  Coffee?  Smells good, but is it really just a human scent cover up?  I think shad or crawfish spray keeps my jig or soft plastic in their mouth longer...but who knows.  Did Berkley test power baits on "spit out time"?

[Team9nine]

15 minutes ago, Bartableman7 said:

Did Berkley test power baits on "spit out time"?

 

Glad you asked. They did and put the answer right on their packages for you to see 

 

[Deleted account]

I don't know what's in Gulp, but fish think it's crack...

[MIbassyaker]

There are a few possible ways scents could work.

First, they could cause a bass to strike if it wouldn't otherwise.

Second, they could cause a bass to hold the bait longer than they normally would.

Third, they could cover up other scents that bass would otherwise avoid or reject.

 

Most research shows bass are attracted to scents they find in the prey they eat -- certain amino acids and salts.  But for most things you can buy at the tackle shop, it's not really clear whether they're using the right kinds of compounds that you'd need to achieve this.    The Strike King coffee smell? Smells great to me...but come on, man -- it's coffee. Fish don't drink coffee.  I understand anise and garlic have been demonstrated to have some minor effects, but it's not exactly clear which of the three mechanisms above are at play.  And heavily salted stuff, including the big grains of table salt you see in a lot of plastics, is probably not the right kind of salt.

 

Berkley has researched scents extensively and have tried to perfect the second mechanism of the three -- holding the bait longer. This appears to be the primary effect that Powerbait, Gulp, and Maxscent have. I don't recall whether Berkley have evidence these products actually attract strikes, but they have a lot of data supporting the notion that bass hold on a bit longer.

 

As for the third possible scent mechanism --covering up other, noxious scents-- lots of scents could probably achieve this if powerful enough...as long as the scent itself isn't noxious.

[PressuredFishing]

6 hours ago, Bartableman7 said:

How do you think the lure manufacturers determine if their scent is the "way to go"?  Coffee?  Smells good, but is it really just a human scent cover up?  I think shad or crawfish spray keeps my jig or soft plastic in their mouth longer...but who knows.  Did Berkley test power baits on "spit out time"?

I'm a believer it actually attracts fish, first being I've heard rumors that people have caught bass on cut bait from locals+ my uncle up in the northeast while catfishing, dead sticking bait without movements for hours and a bass hits, that's interesting.

2 hours ago, MIbassyaker said:

The Strike King coffee smell? Smells great to me...but come on, man -- it's coffee.

Yes but... it's like scratch to smell stickers or scented markers in elementary school... but for adult fisherman ? ?

[MIbassyaker]

16 minutes ago, PressuredFishing said:

Yes but... it's like scratch to smell stickers or scented markers in elementary school... but for adult fisherman ? ?

Hey, I bought the coffee tubes and the caffeine shads, didn't I?  And then I bought some more....

 

Pretty good business model.

[GRiver]

Ok here is my 2 scents ( sorry for the pun, couldn’t resist) on the subject. Probably not worth 1 scent ( sorry again) 

 Scents and flavors work in my opinion but are limited.
   Bass, from what I’ve read, are limited smellers ( if that’s a word). They don’t  track smells like catfish or sharks, but if you entice them with movement, color , or flash reflection. It gets them close enough to smell it, which has to be really close. If the bass are being super finicky, this might be enough for them to take the bait in there mouth. 
But I also read that bass can take in and spit out a bait in a fraction of a second. Think it’s 1/4 to 1/2 of a second. That’s faster then most of us can react without having a visual to anticipate the bite.
In my opinion that’s where flavors come in to effect.

The  flavor, salt, amino’s or, what ever the put in it, that makes their brain trick them selves into thinking it’s food, which makes them hold on longer. Which makes them transfer that up our lines, to the pole where “ WE”- the fisherman, hopefully set the hook. 

My theory is only my opinion from things I’ve read, and my friends and I have discussed around the fire or at spool parties. So don’t take any of this to the bank, it may not be worth 2 scents……sorry just one more.
 

[The Bassman]

I bought a bag of Max Scent Generals a couple of years ago. Decided that regardless their effectiveness I can't deal with the smell. I'll just stay with my elaztech. They work just fine.

[scaleface]

It seems to me that salt works and the Berkely stuff seems to help keep bass hanging on . I use to buy The Berkely formula in bottles . I also liked the crawfish oil and one time had a bass hold onto a soft plastic with Real Craw applied to  it , all the way from 20 foot deep to the boat . I just reeled it in slowly then set the hook at the surface .

[Fishin Dad]

I am convinced scent works, to what degree I am not sure.  A couple examples.  My tourney partner went fishing on St. Clair with another buddy who guides there.   They used a scent for smallmouth.  He said it was undeniable.  We fished Mille Lacs together a few weeks later and he had bought some.   He didn’t start out using it, but put it on and immediately caught fish.   I was convinced.  
Another crazy story I saw first hand.  We have a small lake by my house.  Our local community puts on a kid fishing contest every year.   Brings in about 75 kids.  I also brought my daughters and their friends and helped them out, grilled, had fun.   One friend had her brother fishing and went over to him and he sprayed “walleye spray” (I ended up checking it out later) on a bare hook with about a 6 inch tag of line and 12 pound test.   She threw that in and caught the largest sunfish of the tourney and won money.  
 

I just can’t discount some of the stuff I have seen.  I am not very consistent using scent, but I will use it much of the time.  I have seen it work at times.  

[Captain Phil]

Years ago I went bass fishing in Okeechobee.  When I returned to the ramp a guy was fishing on the bank next to the ramp.  I asked him if he caught anything and he said 10 or 12 bass.  I congratulated him and he showed me his stringer of fish.  I asked him what he was using and he said "one of these salt worms".  That was the first time I had heard of Zoom baits.   Since then I have been a believer.  Any plastic worm will catch bass.  Zoom baits catch more bass for me than any other worm.  Is it the salt or something else?  I don't know and I don't care.

 

I have done a lot of back country salt water fishing in my life.  We fish the 10,000 Island area in Southwest Florida.  The best bait in those waters is a jig.  If you tip your jig with a small piece of shrimp, you double or triple it's effectiveness.  The same thing happens with plastic baits.  Scent and smell definitely affect bass both positively and negatively. For me at least, Zoom has this right.  

[Way north bass guy]

My experiences over all the years I’ve been fishing, for many different species, tells me that scent definitely makes a difference. I don’t think it matters much with faster moving baits like a spinnerbait or a jerkbait, but with plastics, I’m certain it helps, even if it’s just to make the fish hold on that extra little bit so I can hook it. At this stage of the game, I’m pretty much 100% switched over to all Berkley products as far as slow moving soft plastics. I’ve also experimented with spray on scents, and can tell you that if I’m downrigging for lake trout or salmon, I can run two exact spoons at the exact speed and depth, and the one sprayed with Berkley gulp minnow scent gets hit easily twice as much as the other one. Also, whenever I catch a pike on a hard bait while bass fishing, the first thing I’ll do ( after checking my line of course), is give it a couple sprays. It might not do anything, but if it covers up a bit of the pikes scent so the bass doesn’t react negatively, I’m all for it. 

[detroit1]

Anise oil, coffee, garlic...of course it's not a natural smell to a bass, but it smells better than plastisol. Probabally. Maybe. To me anyways....

[A-Jay]

I do use a few of the soft plastics that feature a 'built in scent',

The Strike King line of tubes, craws etc, in particular.

Plenty of success with them but I don't really ever attribute much of that to 'the scent'.

 

  Back up a few years (ok decades) the Original PowerBait seemed like a game changer for me.

Power Worms caught me a ton of green bass back in the day and I did feel the 'scent' played a role in that.   Still use them and still believe. 

 

  Fast forward to present day, (and for the past several years) regardless of whatever soft plastic bait

(and almost every bait for that matter), I'm throwing, @Bobby Uhrig Megastrike gets slathered on each and every one.  You can figure out why.

 

 Finally Maxscent seems to be the real deal.

That Flat worm is really nothing special to look at, profile & action seems like

the 52 thousand other baits out there.

But MAN, does it get bites. 

Almost as good as Junebug.

YMMV

A-Jay

 

[GRiver]

37 minutes ago, detroit1 said:

Anise oil, coffee, garlic...of course it's not a natural smell to a bass, but it smells better than plastisol. Probabally. Maybe. To me anyways....

I know what ya mean, some of the plastics have a strong chemical smell. The subject  was brought up on the forum a little while back about attractants or scents between oil, petroleum based and water based. It got me thinking….

[Team9nine]

Scents for bass - meh ? I think it’s very situational, with most of those “situations” being the vast minority. Once you’ve sprayed your baits with mosquito repellent, handled them with sun screened hands and still caught fish, you realize life isn’t as complicated as we sometimes make it out to be as anglers. That said, I still wash my hands before most fishing trips, mainly because I’ll be eating my lunch with those same hands at some point during the trip ? 

 

If you believe - great!
If you don’t - that works most days, too.

[TOXIC]

I use Shad scented smelly jelly on crappie baits and have some confidence it gets more bites.  Move over to all of the Yamamoto plastics and they have -0- scent added.  I have had fish clamp on the back 1/2 of a Senko nowhere near the hook and I have brought them to the boat.  With the smaller fish, I have actually boat flipped them without them ever having the hook.  

[Skunkmaster-k]

If I don’t spit Levi Garrett on my lures, it affects my confidence. 

[RDB]

18 hours ago, Bartableman7 said:

How do you think the lure manufacturers determine if their scent is the "way to go"?  Coffee?  Smells good, but is it really just a human scent cover up?  I think shad or crawfish spray keeps my jig or soft plastic in their mouth longer...but who knows.  Did Berkley test power baits on "spit out time"?

 

[rtwvumtneer6]

I'm a MegaStrike user.  They make a few "flavors" but the tubes I have don't distinguish one from the other.  Once it's opened and the original package is gone, I can't tell one from the other.  

 

All that being said, I never fish without it.  I have no scientific evidence how it works (or if it works) but it gives me confidence and that's worth $9/tube.

 

There's definitely something to be said for salt, and my personal favorite scent that's infused by a manufacturer is Gambler BITE.  I take a nice big whiff every time I open a bag.  Reminds me of a garlic/kool-aid fruit punch combo.  Mmmmm.

 

 

[king fisher]

I don't want scents to work for bass.  

I have guided fisherman for King Salmon in Alaska for 30 years.  When I started guiding the best way to catch them was with cured salmon eggs.  We used Borax to cure the eggs, and they worked great.  

       Now every day I go guide I have eggs cured with at least four different egg cures, in a dozen different Ziplocs each one with a different commercial scent added.  This is scent put on salmon eggs that already smell like what they are, salmon eggs.  I wear robber gloves while curing the eggs, rigging all tackle, and while I fish.  I don't know where it will end, but I suppose I will wear a space suite if  that is what I think it will take to consistently catch the salmon.

      I enjoy fishing for bass with bare hands, and zero bottles of the latest elixir in the boat.  So far I have refused to buy and try a commercial scent for bass.  I am afraid it will work, and I will catch my PB.  Then I might start slowly going down a river of no return.

[bowhunter63]

I like Sk coffee scent ,It caught me. I use Berkley scent products and Mega strike. Sometime they seem to hold it longer. We use to tip Smallmouth jigs with night crawlers and i know that made a difference 

[WRB]

I played around with various scents on both pork rind and soft plastic worms in the late 60’s. Soaking in coffee grounds, laying on bacon strips, etc. Everything seemed to work OK.

When in the Pieces Bass club the members like Bill Murphy and Mike Falkstad used pure anise oil with glycine and salt for soft plastics. Tried that and it worked on both worms and pork trailers. Still use pure anise oil but added fresh squeezed garlic for my pork trailers, doesn’t mat the hair on my jigs. 

Prefer scents that are slippery on the soft plastics like Mega Strike to aid the worms or craws to slide through cover.

Whatever gives you confidence works.

Hard to argue with Berkley’s scent success.

Tom

[roadwarrior]

MegaStrike on all soft plastics for more than 20 years...Don't  leave home without it!

 

[Spankey]

Any baits that I’ve used that are pre-scented and what few spray scents I’ve used I could not honestly say that they have helped. 
 

BUT I don’t believed they have ever hurt or compromised anything while fishing.