I spent several years managing a tackle department for a large Sporting Goods store. Our customer base was about 70% bass and freshwater fishermen and 30% saltwater fishermen. I always enjoyed seeing the many differences and likenesses in fishing philosophies. Freshwater bass fishermen, especially the tournament fishermen were obsessed with learning about their target and creating an almost scientific-like approach that gave them an edge over the competition. I always recognized one angler in particular because each time he came in he was talking about a new concoction he created to add scent to his artificial baits. He always said, “While most anglers focus on sight and sound, many of them overlook the sense of smell” and he was convinced that by focusing on this 3rd sense he would have a decided edge over his competition. I must say, this gentleman certainly had his share of tournament success.
Years later I was trout fishing with a friend and we were catching a few fish casting grubs. The action was a little slow and he pulled out a bottle of crawfish scented spray and covered his grub. I chuckled to myself thinking back to my former customer and his obsession. I told my buddy the story and he began his testimony about how he used scents all the time and that they really worked. I knew that fish used their sense of smell from using cut mullet for bait growing up, but I was still skeptical of the effectiveness of scents on artificial lures. It only took about ten minutes of him out catching me on every cast for me to pick up the bottle and give my lure a healthy coating of crawfish scent. The difference was impressive. The number of bites and strikes definitely increased.
Today there are many different types of scents for all different types of lures. Some of the more popular scents are crawfish, shrimp, and garlic (no that is not a typo, they really use garlic). Many companies have also started injecting their soft plastic baits with scents and companies like Mister Twister, have gone as far as to m