Best Way to Restore Bait Scent

[TNBankFishing]

I’ve picked up some really great packs of Roboworms and assorted softbaits but they smell strongly of a garage. 
 

Is there a way to safely remove that smell and restore a more normal bait scent? 

[Tatulatard]

Use one of the many scents on the market.  That petroleum like smell is actually the natural scent of plastisol.  Scents are typically added to mask that foul smell and appeal to anglers more so than fish.  This is why they are often scents and waft well in air and are in familiar scents like, coffee, garlic, fruits or anise.  To attract anglers, hide plasitsol scent and give us a easily recognizable feature of the baits to attribute to their success if we have success ie: the "man I had a great day with the KVD caffeine shads"  "that caffeine scent sure does work" instead of correctly associating the success with the caffeine shad just being an excellently designed bait with great action.  

 

Rant aside, just put whatever scent you want on from the dizzying array of scents on the market.  They often have an oil in them that helps keep the baits lubricated and resistant to taking on memory when stored.  I just use some Walmart Bang stuff I have and douse the baits with that when they appear dry or if they smell like a petroleum product.  

[TNBankFishing]

I wasn’t aware that was the standard smell of soft baits. Thank you for the information 

[DinkDreams]

I’ve never been a believer of “using scents will get you more bites”, but I do believe that adding something like Bang, Megastrike, anise oil, etc. does mask our human scent and the fish will hold onto the bait a second or two longer, giving you more time to feel the strike and react.

 

That being said, it could all be placebo effect but it seems to work for me. I like the attractants more for lubrication of the plastic, I find that my plastics come through soft cover much better and get less gunked up.