I have a bottle of this powerbait attractant. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/search-tackle.html?start=0&count=20&prevsearch=berkley+powerbait&searchtext=berkley+powerbait+attractant

 

Should I squirt some into my bags of soft plastics? And if so, how much?

 

Or should I dab a bit on before using the individual plastics?

 

What gives better results?

 

I tried squirting some into a ziplock bag and putting a few plastics in it, zoom plastics, and it seems that it caused some degradation. They looked the same as if they had been under water a while, sort of muddled in the details. I used them and didn't think they caught fish any better than normal.

 

I seemed to think that perhaps a minor amount would work better than a lot, since bass have a great sense of smell.

 

What about using this attractant on jigs? Beneficial or not?

 

All thoughts welcome.

Down here in Florida the fish seem to like the Menhaden oil. Stinks and messy, but if it makes rubber taste like dinner I'm good with it if the fish are.

 

I've used the Berkley scents, but they are very viscous or liquidy for lack of a better word and seem to wash off faster. That menhaden oil seems to stick onto the rubber longer so I have just stuck with it until the bottle runs dry. Then I might go back to the Berkley until it runs dry then back to Menhaden oil.

 

Added- sometimes I do put it in the bag with rubber lures. Other times just a drop on the lure and smear it around some and keep swinging away.

Two things turned me off to attractants. First, a friend and I were running out of Senkos so we put on a Powerbait, Senkos style worm. In the clear water, we could see fish turn away from the Powerbait, but continue to hit the Senkos. Second, a friend spilled some of the liquid attractant on the carpet of my boat. It took forever to get rid of the smell. I won’t allow it on my boat ever again. 

37 minutes ago, Scott F said:

Two things turned me off to attractants. First, a friend and I were running out of Senkos so we put on a Powerbait, Senkos style worm. In the clear water, we could see fish turn away from the Powerbait, but continue to hit the Senkos. Second, a friend spilled some of the liquid attractant on the carpet of my boat. It took forever to get rid of the smell. I won’t allow it on my boat ever again. 

I wonder how many times it turns fish away vs enticing them. I use powerworms and powergrubs, and I don't have any trouble getting bit with them. I also use non scented worms and get bit equally as well.

 

I'll have to experiment with it some, fish a regular worm until the bite is dead, then fish a powerworm and see if I can get a few more. Then reverse it next time or in a different spot.

Data has proven that fish can smell.  I use scent because I am confident of a bite with it and not as confident of a bite without it, which is most important to me.

I don't think it matters the way I fish most of the time.  I'm just putting baits in their faces so they gotta bite it.  Don't do a lot of letting them look and smell the bait most days.

 

I did catch one of the two 11 lb bass I have caught on a power worm!  Who knows!?!?

 

I think fish can learn just about anything that threatens them on a regular basis and I think it's entirely possible that they eventually learn the power bait scent means death.

I like to use them in cold winter weather dragging them ever so slowly ... slowly ... Red Shad ...

Good Fishing

Love me some power worms. Been fishing them since the 1990's, and they still produce.

 

Buddy ready some research a while back that talked about how good a LMB's sense of smell was.

 

My brother got some smelly-jelly for our Canada pike fishing trip. that stuff STUNK! I don't think he caught many more fish than I did.

 

I've had some scents in my boat for a while, but don't really use them.

 

I have found the Gulp minnows really produce on panfish and even catch some LMB's. I am careful to not spill that in my boat.

Bass smell the water so I am quick to believe that any scent that we can smell in the air is ment to catch us more so than the fish.  I imagine any scent for a fishing lure designed to be effecrive at disbursing in water would be water soluble and release over time and probably smell like nothing to us using our noses taking in air.  Something like a gulp fluid or those pastes you ooze out a glob onto a bait.

Josh Alwine included a section about scents/attractants in his book, High Percentage Fishing. In his analysis, there was no evidence that fish attractants improve catch rates.

1 hour ago, LloydR said:

Josh Alwine included a section about scents/attractants in his book, High Percentage Fishing. In his analysis, there was no evidence that fish attractants improve catch rates.

Thanks for sharing. I haven't heard of that book before, thank you for bringing it to my attention. 

Berkley has done a lot of study on attractants. Bottom line is attractants gives you confidence use it!

Suggest you don’t add it to a bag of soft plastics just dab on individually.

Tom

I’m on the fence with attractants. With moving baits, Texas rigged worms, etc etc… I’m not sure if they zone in on my bait, versus seeing or hearing it. But I do believe it makes them hold on longer, and gives me time to detect a bite then set the hook.
 I read somewhere a bass can take in and spit out your bait in less that 1/2 a second, if it doesn’t appeal to them. 
Bottom line …. I use attractants

I’ll  take all the help I can get.

Bass fishing is full of misinformation and superstition. I’m a skeptic by nature, so I look for hard evidence—and in the absence of that, at least some kind of objective testing—to help guide my thinking until better data becomes available.

 

Over the years, I’ve searched extensively for solid, scientific evidence on the effectiveness of scent in bass fishing. So far, I haven’t found much. I generally disregard studies by companies trying to sell scent products. I’m also cautious about taking advice from professional anglers who promote the  products of companies whose logos are on their jerseys.

 

So what am I left with when it comes to scent and largemouth bass? Mostly anecdotal or informal testing posted on forums and websites. Some anglers claim scent helps. Others say it makes no difference. 

 

There is at least one peer-reviewed scientific study I found that’s relevant. It looked at whether adding scent to commercial fish food would cause juvenile largemouth bass to eat more and grow faster. The researchers started with a “biting-ball” test to see if bass were more interested in scent-treated food. They tested multiple scent concentrations and found that attraction increased up to a certain point—but adding more scent beyond that actually reduced the bass’s interest.

 

My takeaway from this? It’s possible that scent can make a lure more attractive if it’s used at the right concentration. But it also challenges the common belief that “scent can’t hurt.” According to this study, using too much scent might actually reduce your chances of getting a bite.

 

I also agree with @Pat Brown's point that over time, bass might even learn to associate certain popular scents (like PowerBait) with danger, potentially avoiding them altogether.

 

So where do I stand now? I’ve used scents in the past. I don’t currently use them, but I’m open to new information. If I see convincing, unbiased evidence in the future, I’d be willing to reconsider.

 

I think it covers up ours so that’s a plus. Sometimes they seem to hold it longer I know spike it works , Twice this year I never got a hit unless a little dip in Spike It garlic scent . Maybe the bass were Italian. Either way im a believer in it 

There isn't a single answer to the question of whether scents "work".  First we should break down a few of the ways a scent might help:

1. A scent trial might help bass find a lure it wouldn't otherwise find.

2. A scent may make a bass strike a lure it wouldn't otherwise strike.

3. A scent may make a bass hold on to a lure longer than it otherwise would.

4. A scent may mask noxious odors or flavors that would otherwise turn bass away.

 

As far as I know, the evidence for #1 and #2 are very limited, at least when it comes to bass.   Berkeley has been pretty clear in their claims about powerbait that it's supposed advantage is mostly #3, and possibly #4. They have amassed years of data from their experimental laboratories to support this, some of the methods and results of which are reported in Keith Jones' book, Knowing Bass, based on his time as director of their labs.   One problem with the Berkeley data though is that they are proprietary, and weren't submitted for peer-reviewed publication (of course that wasn't the point of those studies -- the point was to develop lures).  Another problem is whether the effects are big enough to be noticeable to an angler, or it's just a drop in the bucket compared to the other things that affect your fishing success more. 

 

Josh Alwine's book High Percentage Fishing was mentioned above (He's a BR member -- @jpurdue) His discussion of scents is minimal, but his conclusion is not quite as simple as "no evidence" -- he merely says observations from his own catch rates and those of others do not clearly show an effect of scents, but he also admits these observations are not scientific, and hasn't found any available data set that could resolve the question. He does acknowledges the Berkeley studies show enough evidence for #3 that we could expect a slight positive impact for some lures under some conditions (e.g. plastics fished slowly). He also agrees scents may be useful for #4.  The question again, though, is: is it worth it, and will you notice? 

 

I come down mostly on the skeptical side when it comes to practical effect of scents.  I rather like powerbait plastics, especially power worms, the chigger craw, grubs, and tubes.  But I've never experienced an obvious advantage over non-scented lures of simliar kinds.  I also don't know if the stuff in the bottle works as well as the plastics (again, at least for bass -- I can almost imagine squirting powerbait on everything might just attract more catfish...). 

I gotta toss another monkey wrench into discussion.

 

This entire thread and just about every word is aimed at scent.

 

The product I use is made from a small fish. So its not a chemical like some. Its a food source derivative.

 

When I apply the menhaden oil it is not for scent or attracting. I am more concerned about how it tastes to a bass after grabbing my lure. I want the fish to think it is real food and hold onto it longer because of taste not scent.

 

In Florida I troll around edges of cover a lot casting all the way to shore and work it back through cover. Sometimes bass hit because its moving. Not because they smell it. No time for that as I see it sometimes.

 

It is after the bass grabs it I want them to hold onto it because it tastes like food. My choice is sourced in natural food. So my hope is the bass thinks so as well.

 

They may be able to create working chemical scents but how do they taste to the fish I wonder?

 

Maybe I should give it a try and find out.

I have thought about making my own scents from grinding worms and shad. Then dipping the appropriate lure in the mixture immediately before fishing.

 

For the worms, I could, also keep some soft plastics in a tub of live worms, which would impart some of their scent onto the plastic worms. I haven't thought it through enough yet.

Also Powerbait smells like the Devil himself. 

11 minutes ago, Bazoo said:

I have thought about making my own scents from grinding worms and shad. Then dipping the appropriate lure in the mixture immediately before fishing.

 

For the worms, I could, also keep some soft plastics in a tub of live worms, which would impart some of their scent onto the plastic worms. I haven't thought it through enough yet.

Hope you figure out a way to keep your "blend" fresh.  

FM

1 hour ago, Fishingmickey said:

Hope you figure out a way to keep your "blend" fresh.  

FM

If you can think of it, it has already been tried several times.

Like nearly everything in bass fishing if scent gives you more confidence do it!

I am a believer in scents for soft plastics, jigs and soft swim baits, not for hard lures.

According to Berkley garlic molecules are too large for bass olfactory scenes and bass don’t react positively to anise oil yet I use fresh garlic with 100% anise oil very successfully on my pork rind jig trailers. Confidence probably but I always use garlic/anise oil scent and have for decades.

Tom

PS; Pro-Cure makes their scents using ground up bait, already done for you!

For years there have been products on the market that claim to contain real stuff.   Real Craw comes to mind.   I’ve always wondered,  if it truly is real shouldn’t it be banned in tournaments?

On 7/1/2025 at 8:26 AM, Tennessee Boy said:

Bass fishing is full of misinformation and superstition. I’m a skeptic by nature, so I look for hard evidence—and in the absence of that, at least some kind of objective testing—to help guide my thinking until better data becomes available.

 

Over the years, I’ve searched extensively for solid, scientific evidence on the effectiveness of scent in bass fishing. So far, I haven’t found much. I generally disregard studies by companies trying to sell scent products. I’m also cautious about taking advice from professional anglers who promote the  products of companies whose logos are on their jerseys.

 

So what am I left with when it comes to scent and largemouth bass? Mostly anecdotal or informal testing posted on forums and websites. Some anglers claim scent helps. Others say it makes no difference. 

 

There is at least one peer-reviewed scientific study I found that’s relevant. It looked at whether adding scent to commercial fish food would cause juvenile largemouth bass to eat more and grow faster. The researchers started with a “biting-ball” test to see if bass were more interested in scent-treated food. They tested multiple scent concentrations and found that attraction increased up to a certain point—but adding more scent beyond that actually reduced the bass’s interest.

 

My takeaway from this? It’s possible that scent can make a lure more attractive if it’s used at the right concentration. But it also challenges the common belief that “scent can’t hurt.” According to this study, using too much scent might actually reduce your chances of getting a bite.

 

I also agree with @Pat Brown's point that over time, bass might even learn to associate certain popular scents (like PowerBait) with danger, potentially avoiding them altogether.

 

So where do I stand now? I’ve used scents in the past. I don’t currently use them, but I’m open to new information. If I see convincing, unbiased evidence in the future, I’d be willing to reconsider.

 

There is evidence that bass can be conditioned to avoid specific stimuli when paired with negative consequences, and there is also evidence that its peers may adopt similar avoidance behavior through some form of social learning.  What I haven’t found is any study that looked specifically at what frequency of reinforcement is necessary to prevent the avoidance response from being extinguished.  The implication is that if everyone stopped using scent (or some other popular bait), the avoidance response would eventually be extinguished and the scent or bait would again be productive.

There is an interesting anecdote to similar studies that relates to slot machine payoffs.

I often make my choices, including scent, based on what I feel is the most popular. I think Powerbait is old school and less popular, and thus I chose it over Gulp. 

On 7/1/2025 at 12:02 PM, PGA Dropout said:

Also Powerbait smells like the Devil himself. 

 

The powerbait smell takes me back to 1988 when Id rig a power worm on my 6'M Lightning Rod with a Tru-Turn hook.  Its a good smell 🤠