Bass Attractant

[cyclops2]

Well I fished where there were no bass. Everything I put on did NOTHING !!!!

So much for attracting fish !!!!

 

[fin]

I’ve been through a couple of bottles of JJ’s over the years, but I think I’m done with it. You can’t tell if it’s making any difference for sure, but I know for sure it stinks up the place and the time spent dipping could be time spent dipping my bait in the water.

[JediAmoeba]

I honestly believe bait scent does 2 things:

1. covers up our scent and other things that would steer them clear when finicky. 

2. When they do bite they hold on a little bit longer making it easier to get a hookset.

 

I use procure now. On everything. 

 

[cyclops2]

I have fished with a friend and did a test with him. Me on my Rapalas & spinners.  Him only using 2" to 3" Shiners.  I woke up the fish.

He caught a fish on almost every deliberate wacky cast.  Even used a float to keep the Shiners 1 ' away from the float. We laughed until we ran out of bait.

[GaryH]

1 hour ago, Team9nine said:

Why? But it’s your time, your money, and your mind. Go ahead and appease the monkey if it makes you feel better. I’ll pass…

Why do you always have to be logical 😁😁👍

[OmegaDPW]

I tried two of them many many years ago. Both were probably Berkley and one was marketed as crappie attractant and the other was bass attractant. The only thing I remember about them was that the bass attractant leaked out of the bottle all in my tacklebox and I'm not sure if I ever even used it before that happened. In my opinion, the crappie attractant didn't do a thing and I noticed no difference. I've looked again over the years at others, but honestly, it's more expensive than I want to spend. My local Wal Mart had a couple the other day but they were like 7-8 bucks a bottle. I'd rather have some Zoom finesse/trick worms for that price.

 

When catfishing, though, I may take a couple of hot dogs and put them in a zip-lock bag with some salt and onion powder and let them sit on the counter overnight. I think that helps. The big trick in catfishing right now is chicken breast marinated in red Kool-Aid powder. The 'Net says that works amazing. 

[Tennessee Boy]

I ran a very logical and convincing test a while back.

 

I took a quarter and flipped it three times.  It came up heads once and tails twice.   I put a drop of anise oil on it and flipped it three times again.  It came up heads twice and tails once.  That’s twice as many heads!  If it works on quarters it has to work on fish. Right?

[Choporoz]

I convinced myself that MegaStrike makes fish hold on longer.  Not convinced they are 'attracted', or that it coaxed bites out of fish that wouldn't otherwise.  My 'evidence' came from my observation that I lose a lot more claws and tails from soft plastics when I use MegaStrike.   Likely bluegills, but I've decided it is because they hang on longer due to the goo... and bass might, also.

[Dogface]

1 hour ago, JediAmoeba said:

I honestly believe bait scent does 2 things:

1. covers up our scent and other things that would steer them clear when finicky. 

2. When they do bite they hold on a little bit longer making it easier to get a hookset.

 

 

I agree with this. I have 6 or 8 bottles and tubes of various scents in the boat. I use whatever I grab but I think Megastrike (hard lures) and JJ's (soft lures) work better covering up my scent and having the fish hold onto the bait longer.

 

I also have Bait Fuel. I want to believe it works but so far it has not. Last year I decided to test it. I was fishing a small pond from a boat using Ned rigs. I took two identical TRDs and put Bait Fuel on one and fished the other with no scent. I fished both side by side. 

 

I caught 4 or 5 bass on the unscented TRD and no bass on the Bait Fuel scented TRD. The odds of catching no bass in the pond I was fishing was unusual especially when I was catching bass on the second rod. It was almost as if Bait Fuel was a repellent rather than an attractant.  

 

I do intend to try a comparison test again using Bait Fuel. I have trouble believing other's results are so good and mine rate a zero so far. 

[Scott F]

I’ve been leery of scents ever since I witnessed bass turning away from a Gulp worm but hitting a Senko on every cast   We were hammering them on Senkos one day but we didn’t have a lot of them and as you know, they get torn up pretty quickly. My fishing partner had some Gulp worms. We could plainly see the fish hitting the Senkos. When using the Gulp, they’d swim up to it, get close, then swim away. Back to the Senko, and they’d hit it. I’m sure it’s not like this in every case(nothing in fishing works the same way every time) but I’d rather not take a chance that I’m throwing something that MIGHT repel a fish. Plus, the stink that remains after a spill of a scent product is not something I ever want to deal with again. 

[Cgolf]

Liquid Mayhem here for years and Atlas Mikes before that. Both Gel scents.

 

My case for it. Was fishing with the father in law for an hour, I had at least 5 bass to his zero strikes on plastics. Got him to try scent without changing baits, and he had hits within 5 casts and landed his first fish within a couple of minutes. He was on the road to believing in it, and it happening a second time for him closed the deal. For him it wasn't a confidence thing, because he wasn't a believer in it at that point.

[TOXIC]

Interesting that Yamamoto uses no scent in their plastics.  The oily feel they have is a release agent for the molds.  I have never added any additional scent to their plastics except when they made crappie baits.  They no longer do but I still put Smelly Jelly on any crappie plastic I use.  I put the green pro formula Shad scent on them.  I don’t know if it could be considered scent but I also will tip the hook of my crappie plastics with Berkley Crappie Bites.  

[FishTank]

I have used Gulp, Megastrike, Bang, and Bait Fuel. I was convinced at some point that all of these "Attracted " fish but I'm not so sure anymore.  I think it might make a hungry fish hold on longer but I don't think a fish that is buried in cover is going to smell it and try to eat it based on the scent alone.  

 

There maybe one exception and I may change my mind down the road...... Geecrack.  Whatever they put in their baits stinks really bad and it lasts. The fish seem to like it. I have been putting other baits in the leftover empty bags and it's been (in my mind) getting the fish to bite. 

[cyclops2]

Anybody try doing a Korean Fish Party ?

( Handgrenades )

[bowhunter63]

Mega strike or Bait fuel. It doesn’t hurt 

[Dogface]

2 hours ago, FishTank said:

There maybe one exception and I may change my mind down the road...... Geecrack.  Whatever they put in their baits stinks really bad and it lasts. The fish seem to like it. I have been putting other baits in the leftover empty bags and it's been (in my mind) getting the fish to bite. 

 

Do they like the smell or the innovative lure designs Geecrack has come out with?  

 

[FishTank]

43 minutes ago, Dogface said:

 

Do they like the smell or the innovative lure designs Geecrack has come out with?  

 

Maybe both.  I have done well with the Bellows Gill, Bellows Shad, Imo Kemushi and the Bellows Craw but not so much on the Bellows Stick. Anything else I have tossed in the leftover bags has gotten bit but they are things like Senkos, Beavers, and Lizards (stuff that gets bites as it is). 

[TOXIC]

I don’t know if I’ve ever smelled anything stronger than Chompers garlic scented grubs.  Smelled like I had an Italian restaurant in my boat.  

[TLHSS]

I use Liquid Mayhem on my unscented soft plastics.   No mess, and no outrageous smell. 
 

I only buy unscented soft plastics due to allergies. 

[Cgolf]

4 minutes ago, TOXIC said:

I don’t know if I’ve ever smelled anything stronger than Chompers garlic scented grubs.  Smelled like I had an Italian restaurant in my boat.  

 

I have some of their tubes and they are overpowering. I will say those crappie nibbles were my start with scent like 27 years ago when we fished a lake that had tons of crappie. I didn't realize that they still made them. 

Just now, TLHSS said:

I use Liquid Mayhem on my soft plastics.   No mess, and no outrageous smell. 

 

I am glad that they went away from the red color that was in the originals, I still have some. That color would stain shirts and probably boat carpet too.

[RHuff]

Berkley Maxscent 😲 😆

[OmegaDPW]

2 hours ago, TOXIC said:

I don’t know if I’ve ever smelled anything stronger than Chompers garlic scented grubs.  Smelled like I had an Italian restaurant in my boat.  

I've got the finesse worms. They're awful smelling to me and definitely stick to your hands rigging one up. I've only caught one fish with them and have used them numerous times. I've double bagged mine and put them up for now.

[RRocket]

9 hours ago, fin said:

I’ve been through a couple of bottles of JJ’s over the years, but I think I’m done with it. You can’t tell if it’s making any difference for sure, but I know for sure it stinks up the place and the time spent dipping could be time spent dipping my bait in the water.

For those who abhor the smell, it's another reason I use Bait Fuel. Have deliberately put some on my older shirts, pants etc

 

No smell, no stain.

 

I also appreciate that their testing was done independently at an unaffiliated University in Ontario.

[JediAmoeba]

6 hours ago, cyclops2 said:

Anybody try doing a Korean Fish Party ?

( Handgrenades )

Do they sell these at bass pro? 

[txchaser]

Just watched an excerpt of the texas bass study where they moved fish to see if they could find their way back to the bed. The ones that had smell blocked were more lost than the ones with vision or magnetic blocking. 

 

My dog prefers the baitfuel infused netbait, by a lot. I catch some bigguns soaking the trickworm, but no heads up test so no data. 

 

For whatever reason I'm convinced the maxxscent stuff works. But I also think you have to be willing to fish slow or make the same cast twice.

 

Megastrike goes on most things that don't have scent. As much for the weeds and scent coverup as who knows if it really gets them to hang on longer in any meaningful way. I noticed I'm pretty ticked off about cutting the tube size down by half and not changing the price at all. And most sites didn't change the picture so I was extra grumpy about it. At least the lid is better now? 

 

Regular powerbait is just so foul unless I had serious proof there's no way I'd pick that over an unscented bait. Material is weird too.