To Scent Or Not To Scent

Jerdon had asked me a great question in one of my recent fish report postings:

"Do you think the scent adds to your fish count or are you just afraid to leave it off at this point"?

My reply to Jerdon:

"Daniel a.k.a. Singletrack, never used scent and most of the time he would land more Bass numbers than I would.
I use scent in hopes of attracting Halibut but I don't believe that it actually helps in attracting the Bass during it's initial strike.

I feel as though the Bass react to movement and presentation and I would like to think that once the Bass bites down
on the scent (enzyme) coated bait; and once it gets a taste of it in it's mouth, that it's lil' brain tells it's mouth to hang-on to it
and or hopefully it causes the fish to do a return second strike. Anyways ... that's my theory and I'm sticking to it.

The one thing that I do believe ... is that it doesn't cause a loss in the bite activity but somehow it improves my chances of a strike.

I've noticed that while I've been using the scent; along with presentation, that I have actually caught more and larger Halibut than most ...
so maybe the scents do work, hence they have created such a gigantic market wagon-trained around all of the scent products. Perhaps the scent trail; in the water, works better on certain inner harbor predatory species and not so well on other inner harbor species.
But the one thing that I will guarantee you is  ... whether or not you choose to use scent on your baits ... you WILL CATCH FISH.

Bottom line for me Jerdon is ... for me not to use scent on my bait would be like me walking out the door wearing only one sock ...
it just wouldn't feel right nor complete to me if I didn't apply scent onto my bait ... after all ... I do need to create all the luck that I can for myself. lol

And perhaps ... I've grown to become a bit more superstitious in my ol' ways as well.     lol ... Who's to say?!"  


I'd be very interested in hearing about everyone's experiences; or beliefs, about whether or not scent on bait actually works for any of you out there. Your thoughts.
"Do you think the scent adds to your fish count or are you just afraid to leave it off at this point"? "Jerdon"

I use procure scents, I mix them all together. Started using it when I won a bottle from Jeff. I get a variety of strikes from scent versus no scent. More spotties and halis, with a sprinkling of sandies.............That being said, I switched to HUB crusty scent(red) the last two outings. More sandies......

One point I must make, I think the procure sticks to the HUB longer..........2 cents and out.......GT

For freshwater Trouting (the bulk of my fishing) I fish with Mini Jigs - and I use Procure earthworm scent.  It is nasty... a brown oil slick in a bottle.  My waders are stained, my tube is stained, my gloves are stained, my hat is stained.  And does it stink.   But I won't fish without it.  

For salt in the bays (still a Noobie, with 6 outings now) I fish with Hook Up Baits... the saltwater equivalent of a Mini-Jig.   I've tried Hot Sauce, I've tried Unibutter and I've tried Hook Up Red (crustacean)

* Unibutter - too unruly to apply.... It may work, but I haven't figured out how to not get it everywhere, so I stopped using it after one-half of an outing

* Hot Sauce - loaner from JeffCPR my first outing... where I caught 5 halibut on HUBs.... A wee bit messy, but it seemed effective.  I will try it again soon.

* Hook Up Red - they get an A+++ for application ease and mess free fishing.  My usage has been coinciding with my getting better at this... so not a fair test.  

I have the ProCure some have recommended here - that's up for next outing.  I plan on doing a more thorough test in 3 weeks.  

I use scent.  Nearly always - not to attract a strike, but to motivate a second or third strike.

Your mileage may vary.  

- K

In the Northern Ca. lakes. It seems that trout always to take a liking to garlic sent on the worms. My buddy found a garlic sent in a spray can. The trout in Crowley and Bridgeport went nuts with the stuff.
When I came down from Oregon I always used the Pro Cure corn sent. That worked well in Irvine and the local stocked lakes.

mthaubs wrote:In the Northern Ca. lakes. It seems that trout always to take a liking to garlic sent on the worms. My buddy found a garlic sent in a spray can. The trout in Crowley and Bridgeport went nuts with the stuff.
When I came down from Oregon I always used the Pro Cure corn sent. That worked well in Irvine and the local stocked lakes.

So the posing question is mthaubs:

"Do you think the scent adds to your fish count or are you just afraid to leave it off at this point"?

SP Dan <"))><

For the Sierra's, I would always use a scent product. They seem to out fish regular bait.  I have seen it year after year.

I believe it adds to my overall fish count. I think that with scent it can allow the fish to hold on just a little longer for a good hook set.

Amen...........

I always use scent for bass fishing just to cover up human scent
JJs magic almost always, for the color accent mainly but it has a garlic smell that lasts for weeks. Even fished all day that smell does not go away.

I had a moment in time where I swore by scents. The promise of attracting larger and more fish while fishing made me seek out the best at its time scents ranging from crave and bang to procure and homemade concoctions. Then for years after, I rarely used it. I grew tired of the spilled contents, not to mention tough to squeeze and even explosive attempts at applications. Adding to the list of gripes, I hated how some of these scents got on everything and stubbornly refused to go away. Dont get me wrong, a scent that sticks on a lure very well is amazing! but when the same scent gets on, for example, your steering wheel or your cell phone, you are doomed to have that scent haunt you and potentially other objects it may come in contact to for an unforeseeable future. Can you imagine your significant other leaning in for a kiss then getting a whiff of some gulp attractant that was rubbed onto your face from your cell?
I've fished side by side with friends using the exact same lure and I've noticed it did very little in terms of "upping one's advantage" and if anything perhaps even made my offering less desirable when they got more action that I did. It could be that fact that he was fishing in a spot a few feet away from me that allowed his bait to intercept the hungry mouth of a fish before it found my smelly offering, or it could be the very fact that my offering was smelly. Who knows.
What I do know:
When you drop a bait down with scent, it attracts a lot more attention of fish than a bait without scent. It's very noticeable within a minute or two (drop a gulp bait at your feet while on a jetty vs a plastic bait and see what I'm talking about). How often do we fish our baits in such a stationary manner? Not often unless we are drop shotting typically or dead sticking a bait.
But when we are fishing more reaction oriented baits (see most of when we end up chuck 'n' winding) I don't see how the scent will increase the chance of fish biting your lure over the lure's action by itself.

However, as stated above, a little extra edge wouldn't hurt when the fish are already keen on the seductive movements of your wares. Currently, I dug out my old bottles of scent and started to use them again only on baits that have hollow cavities, specifically tubes. I feel when applied inside of these cavities, it keeps the scent from dissipating too fast in the water (keeping smelliness factor down) while you are working the bait, and two: gives the fish a nice flavorful burst when they chomp down on the lure to entice them to either keep the bait in its mouth or be more willing to hit the bait again and more aggressively the next cast. Still makes me smell more funny than normal after a session but it is one more added to the sacrifices we make in the name of fishing. Everything in moderation right?