Fish Attractants

[Blue Raider Bob]

I have never used an attractant but so many of the authors I read recommend them, including Jim Root, Bobby Gentry, and Kevin Van Dam. What are your thoughts? Are you convinced that attractants create more bites and if so what brands would you recommend? I mostly fish for Smallies and Spots in current on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers with the usual arsenal of swim baits, cranks, craws/tubes, and Ned rigs.

[GaryH]

Megastrike original and crayfish. 

[roadwarrior]

MegaStrike on all soft plastics...ALWAYS!

[AManWearingAHat]

Megastrike on 100% of soft plastics. Original for bass, Crayfish for Panfish / everything else.

[Bankbeater]

I never noticed any difference in the bite so I quit using it.

[DaubsNU1]

I haven't used them since the 1990's...

 

Buddy found some reached back in the 1990's, comparing human sense of smell vs. dog vs. LMBass....

 

A human can essentially smell a drop of vinegar in a 2 liter bottle of water...a dog can detect a drop in a 50 gallon drum...and a largemouth bass....

 

(amazed me if actually true)

 

...a drop of vinegar in an Olympic sized swimming pool(!)

 

So we paid careful attention to scent, what we were touching with our hands, all that stuff...and we discovered why my wife always out-fished us...women's makeup contains lots of fish-oils.

 

** Note to self: I should probably get me some Megastrike **

[BassNJake]

My old tourney partner rubbed mega strike on everything

Seriously, if he fished with live bait I'd bet he'd still smear some on

[InfantryMP]

I was at DSG once, and I saw Bass Bombs...it is like a bath bomb but for fish as an attractant. There are a ton of youtube videos about them.  I wish they were still around so I could try them out, but I never bought in to the hype of them. 

 

I have never used anything besides dipping tails or appendages. 

 

[roadwarrior]

47 minutes ago, Bankbeater said:

I never noticed any difference in the bite so I quit using it.

It's not the bite, but I think bass hold on better.

[Dogface]

I use scent on everything. I have never experienced an occasion where I thought that scent was detrimental.

 

When I first started using scent I tried to compare scented and unscented worms. The fish held onto the scented worms longer. It didn't take long to convince me. 

 

 

[Hammer 4]

Megastrike goes on all my plastic baits.

[WRB]

The 1st time your fishing partner is kicking butt with scent that you refuse to use may impact your decision.

MegaStrike small tube is easy to use and store, plus lubricates soft plastic to slide through cover. 

When using big soft plastic Swimbaits Pro Cure trout helped improve strike to hook set ratio by lubricating the lure.

Both the above are gel base. On my hair jigs I only use 100% anise oil (2 drops) and fresh garlic in a jar for added scent because it doesn’t mat the hair like gels do.

The thing I know is scent doesn’t turn bass off.

Tom

[T-Billy]

56 minutes ago, roadwarrior said:

It's not the bite, but I think bass hold on better.

^THIS^ I'm also a Megastrike fan. Crawfish.

[bowhunter63]

Megastrike makes a huge difference 

[CrashVector]

I use: pro-cure trophy bass, bang pure craw and shiner formulas, but my favorite is nightcrawler liquid mayhem.

 

Pro-cure I put in my elaztec baits.

 

The bang sprays get put on my other soft plastics just to keep em lubricated.  Craw on the bottom contact baits, shad on the ones that swim.

 

Liquid mayhem I put on everything while I'm fishing.  A study was done that showed nightcrawler extract to be the most attractive to Bass (got the most bites by far) so that's why I use it.

[Mat_ski]

Never used scent, but you all seem to agree about effectiveness of megastrike so I just couldn’t resist and ordered one. 

[Bird]

Baitmate for many years, smells like liquorice.

[WRB]

2 minutes ago, Bird said:

Baitmate for many years, smells like liquorice.

That would Anise oil.

[Catt]

I use "worm juice" for two purposes first as a lubricant because I fish in grass a lot and the "worm juice" helps my plastic baits slide through easier. I use Baitmate (clear) with a ½ oz of 100% pure anise oil added; this is to mast any odor my plastic may have pick up.

 

The only place y'all find 100% pure anise oil is at your local pharmacy, the rest will be 40-70% max.

[padon]

idk if it helps but i use it. mega strike and pro cure. doesnt hurt, might help and im sure it gives me a couple extra seconds to set the hook.

[Basser2021]

6 hours ago, roadwarrior said:

It's not the bite, but I think bass hold on better.

What he said

[Glenn]

 

[NorthernBasser]

I'm starting my own company called 6th Scents Fishing. 

[Jigfishn10]

MegaStrike original is in my "bag-o-tricks" (in the spirit of belated St. Paddy day).

[JustJames]

I’m not 100% believe in fish attractant but I do have most of the recommendations here, mega strike, pro cure, smelly jelly, jj magic, don’t even look in my crappie tackle box, I have even more, slab sauce, Berkeley nibble, crappie bite etc…

For me it is not just about the bites, but to get    committed bite. One guy told me about algae that stick on plastic, once fish taste it they would let go the lure faster than you might think.