scent or not?

[rboat]

I know this has been seen before, but I am really interested in who uses scent always and why. It can't hurt but is it worth the time, expense, and extra mess. You never see pros dip or spray during a tournament, however a few say they soak soft plastics the night before. I am just curious if there is any real proof of more bites with scent. Bass are primarily sight feeders so will scent help at all? Some say it gives you an extra second for a hookset, but I am sure feel may determine acceptance of prey more than a scent. Lets here some more thoughts and proof if you have it. I want to know before I invest in something else to take along. Thanks.

[Raul]

27 years ago I began fishing for bass almost exclusively because it 's the only predatory fish in my neck of the woods, I knew nothing about bass so, nothing about baits, nothing about bass tackle, nothing about bass habits so I learned to fish for bass on my own and by reading the few magazines I could find here in Mexico that ocassionaly talked about bass like Field & Stream or OutdoorLife, many times the people writing X or Y article recommend using scents on your baits, but like tackle scents were hard to find down here, one day maybe 22 or 23 years ago I finally managed to put my hands on a bottle of scent and smeared every single lure I could with it, quite frankly I could not assure if my success or my lack of it had to do anything with pouring me the stuff on my lures or not but I can hardly notice any difference, so that bottle old bottle of scent was still around until about a year ago when I finally discarded it ...... with 2/3 of it 's content still in it.

You talk about investing in scents, how many are you willing to try or how many are you planning to buy ? purchase a bottle, spend a few bucks and try it, the worst thing that could happen is you keeping a bottle of scent with more than half of it 's content just to discard it 20 years later just like I did.

[T-rig]

Scent or not?   Not!

[Jeff C.]

Most soft plastics are heavily scented when made..

I do believe this helps..

to put more on mite help also..

but its a hassle,, time consuming and all that other

stuff while fishing,,

soaking them the nite before.. not a bad Idea,,

I try to leave the baits in there package and these packages have

scent in them..

when I pour my own I put scent in the bait & in the bag,,

just my opinion..

works for me...

[Sam]

According to Dr. Jones in his book, most scents are oil based and the bass cannot smell them.

Bass can smell water based scents.

With that said, I put scent on plastics and Mega Strike on everything, including hard baits.

Why?  For confidence and I beleive it tasts good to the fish and they will hold onto the lure longer.

There is a secret scent that is supposed to work for bass but I don't share it.  Sorry.

Dr. Jones' tests showed that scents can help catch bass.  Get his book, Knowing Bass, The Scientific Approach to Catching More Bass, and read what he has to say.

[BassHunter69]

According to Dr. Jones in his book, most scents are oil based and the bass cannot smell them.

Bass can smell water based scents.

With that said, I put scent on plastics and Mega Strike on everything, including hard baits.

Why? For confidence and I beleive it tasts good to the fish and they will hold onto the lure longer.

There is a secret scent that is supposed to work for bass but I don't share it. Sorry.

Dr. Jones' tests showed that scents can help catch bass. Get his book, Knowing Bass, The Scientific Approach to Catching More Bass, and read what he has to say.

ive read his book great book to

[Bassin_Cowboy]

Sor of like Raul, I purchased some when they were coming out in mid-late 80's and I can attest that they did NOT help any and more often than not I came home skunked.

Howver, after recently re-discovering this old passion for fishing and fishing for bass, I bit the bullet and 2 bottles are on their way to my home. 1 is water based, 1 is oil based in a garlic scent. I'll let you know how they good or bad they work. I'm out $12 plus shipping but with the time I've spent over the years with no time to fish and knowing that technology has improved, I'm willing to gamble at least once more and try a couple of scents. Now keep in mind that I didn't buy these because some pro on TV said they work but belonging to another forum and seeing all the raves from forum members about this particular product, I'm giving it a try.

Will keep you posted.

[Catt]

According to Dr. Jones fish can't smell oil based scents and he also stated bass are turned off by anise oil; yet anise oil is added to most plastic baits sold on today's market.

I use Fish Formula II or Baitmate (clear) with a ½ oz of pure anise oil added, while I can't give you scientific evidence supporting its use, I can tell you that many times when not getting bite I added scent and started getting bites. I have also seen many times when my fishing partner was not using scent and I was and the difference in catch ratio was 5:1, then my partner added scent and started catching.

I believe scents fall under the same category as the color red, I can't explain why it works but it does.

[RWHusker.]

I'm with Catt.  No proof except I believe in it and my fishing buddies start to ask what I"m using and throw it back here please.

I was introduced to Spike IT Chartruse Garlic while at Fork.  Not sure if its the Chartruce Dye or Garlic taste/smell that worked, but I believe it worked.  Hated the wind getting it on my boat.

I recently purchase a tube of MegaStrike and Bobby convinced me that Largemouth would be following the boat for it.  I believe it works and am in test mode as we speak.

GO BIG RED

[BassHunter69]

regarding scent what scents are water based which products?

[Brad_Coovert]

IMO, scent is all about confidence.  If you are more confident using scent on your baits, then by all means, use it.  Confidence in your baits, equipment, etc. is very important IMO as a lack of confidence causes distractions in your mind and that leads to missed fish.

I like MegaStrike, mainly because it comes in a tube, is easy to apply and is not messy.

Brad

[TrickyVT1887]

Scent or no scent I really wanna say no scent at all, its horrible, don't use it, especially if I'm fishing against you in a tournament. But all in all I've seen too many times that it results in more fish, EX. a sunken pallet on a hump at a local reservoir that is over pressured fishing with a finesse worm and casting to the same place for about 10 to 15 casts, then adding scent to the bait and pulling 3 fish off of the piece of cover in the next 5 casts....For me that doesn't seem like confidence I know my bait works, but for some reason that scent made my bait work better...(IT IS OIL BASED AS WELL)...so is BANG which I am confident their Shad scent is one of the best scents when throwing baits to resemble baitfish which I also believe is an oil based scent.

[jwo1124]

I am not a big scent guy. I have one bottle of Garlic YUM spray that is about 8 years old. I'll give my spinner or crank a couple sprays at the beginning of the day. Once at night aI was fishing with a shallow crank from shore late spring of this year. After about 10 casts to a spot without a bite I sprayed some YUM on, and within the next two casts I got a fish. I dont know if this is a coincidence or not.

I heard bass hardly rely on their sense of smell anyway. They mostly use sight and lateral line/sound to detect prey, and then they use taste as they strike the object in order to see if its edible food. But then again, what makes fish go nuts over live bait? I would say its the smell...so I guess the question goes unanswered.

[.ghoti.]

I have noticed an increase in catch rates when using a scent. I use some on almost all my soft plastics, but not because I believe that I'll get more bites, or that the scent attracts the fish. I do not believe that. I do believe that the scent helps to mask whatever odor/flavor I've added to the bait during handling.

The idea that bass will follow a "scent trail" to your bait is a load of high grade fertilizer. This may be true for catfish. I don't know, and don't care. Bass are primarily sight feeders, and will use sound and/or vibration when they can't see. Scent/taste only come into play when the fish has the bait in it's mouth. That's when my experience leads me to believe it makes a difference. Bass wil spit out something that doesn't taste right a lot faster than you can react.

What doesn't tast right? Well, there are a few obvious things like sunblock, bug juice, cigars, etc. There are probably other more subtle things that we're not aware of, or in control of. A bass's sense of smell is much more sensitive than ours. What you had for dinner last night, or for breakfast two days ago, may very well be the difference.

Besides, I believe in stacking the deck in my favor. The scent of a bait is one of the things we can control. Why not control it?

Cheers,

GK

[Brad_Coovert]

But all in all I've seen too many times that it results in more fish, EX. a sunken pallet on a hump at a local reservoir that is over pressured fishing with a finesse worm and casting to the same place for about 10 to 15 casts, then adding scent to the bait and pulling 3 fish off of the piece of cover in the next 5 casts....For me that doesn't seem like confidence I know my bait works, but for some reason that scent made my bait work better.

Fish can turn on and off in a moment and can move off of or onto a structure at any time. I've had many situations the same as yours where I caught nothing and then suddenly, the fish turned on and I did well on several casts. I made no changes, yet the fish turned on. I've done the same thing, except I changed colors and then got more bites......and we all know color is a whole different debate in itself.

I'm not saying your scent did not do the trick, maybe it did, maybe it didn't. I'm just not convinced that adding scent has been proven to be that big of a factor in overall catch rates.

Even though I'm not convinced, I still use Megastrike. I have more confidence in a bait with something more than just "plastic" and confidence is a very big factor in the mental side of the sport IMO.  Like ghoti said, I might as well use something I can control and then, if does happen to make a difference, I already have it on the bait.  

Brad

[roadwarrior]

IMO, scent is all about confidence. If you are more confident using scent on your baits, then by all means, use it. Confidence in your baits, equipment, etc. is very important IMO as a lack of confidence causes distractions in your mind and that leads to missed fish.

I like MegaStrike, mainly because it comes in a tube, is easy to apply and is not messy.

Brad

I would add that MegaStrike is also a great lubricant which might come into play with some lures, especially swimbaits.

[rondef]

I like using the Gulp worms because of the scent, they seem to attract fish that my other worms do not.

[Raul]

The scent/ no scent debate is pretty much like the rod/ black, blue, gold, silver hook debate, you feel confident that by using scent you get more bites by all means use it, just don 't put all your faith in it.

[rbrick]

I'm with Road Warrior,I use megastrike as a lubricant.I fish a lot of frog/rats and it helps them slide through the pads and also helps with the hookset.If it also helps attract bass so much the better.

Rick Wells

Tallahassee