Plastics & Scents – Your thoughts…

Ever wonder if scents/salt/garlic/composition make a difference with plastics… I mean, REALLY makes a difference? Or, the manufacturer of the plastics matter even? What do the folks out there think about the difference between the plastics and scents available with them? For example, has anyone seen a difference in performance between:

1. Berkley Powerbait Original Scent
2. Berkley Powerbait Tournament Strength with Salt
3. Yum LPT (live Prey Technology) Scent
4. Yamamoto (obviously full of salt)
5. Chompers Salt and Garlic Impregnated Lures
6. Creme Original
7. Kinami (clearly Yamamoto knock-offs)
8. Storm aniseed bio-scent attractant
9. Zoom salt-impregnated super soft baits

Anyone want to venture a guess if there really is a difference? Or, is it marketing at its finest? I have a preference, but is it in my head?

I am purposely ignoring the new super plastics and biodegraable versions (GULP!) as I have not bought into this technology yet due to:
1. Superplastics ability to destroy through chemical reactions everything else in my tackle box.
2. The biodegradable, or water-based, plactics dry out and due not withstand most tournament conditions (or so I’ve been told.)

I like power baits when the water temp. is below 60.I did not care for Yum products but have not used enough to commet on.I love Yamamoto they also have fish sent in them I do beleave if you get a hit the fish will consume the bait,then throw back and catch ,I know this because I have found my baits in there mouth and throat.[proof in the pudding?]I have always loved chompers but there seens to be a time and place for garlic.Zoom the salt content is very good.Creme it is the petrolium smell that woks so well [warm water]. All are diffrent ways to fish.Remeber no lure can catch fish till it catches the angler first.

i know you left out the new cyber flex baits but one thing i have been reading is the salt impregnated cyber flexx baits now sink

so this must mean that impregnating baits with salt helps all baits sink rate?

i use the 10 inch power worm when fishing deep water i feel the added action of the big worm helps me fishing drop offs etc (im a power fisherman) so finesse hasnt caught on with me yet the reason i use the power i feel they will hold on to it longer and give me time to react to the deep bite

also use the power craws and lizzards mainly after a cold front

also when flipping i use alot of larew products senkos and zoom all salt impregnated all the time when flipping soft plastics

Good topic and discussion. I feel that at certain times that different (or no scent) scents work or at least give me more confidence. The salt content absolutely affects the sinking rate of plastic as does any other additive. I think one of the keys to using any lure is to have confidence in it to catch the species that you are after at that time and place. I believe that when fish are actively feeding, especially sight-feeding, that scents play less of role than when they are inactive or in cold water conditions but on the other hand a reaction strike can be elicited in more than one way. Sometimes going smaller but also sometimes going bigger and noisier. I think this is one reason why crankbaits can work very well in water below 50 as the instinctual “button” (nature) of a predator can be pushed at any time in an individual fish. They all react to different stimuli individually. This is evident by pulling into a spot and catching one or two and then none afterwards with the same and different presentations. I usually will pull out non-scented plastics during times then they are hitting anything to test lures that for whatever reason I have less confidence in than my go to lures, hence my personal conclusions on different or lack of scents making a difference.

I think that scent does not hurt anything. I think salt helps to keep a fish hanging on. Two examples.

1. I was flipping a Gene Larew Salt Craw and missed a strike and lost the craw. I put another on and flipped back in. I caught the fish and upon examination I saw the other craw just barely sticking out of the fishes gullet. That fish was eating that bait thinking it was real food.

2. At state tourny in Muscatine once I weighed a limit to my partners 0. The only difference was I was tossing a Zoom lizard and he was using a Berkley Power Bait. We both had same color, both 20lb line, both 3/16 oz sinkers. The guy knew how to fish very well. In my mind I think the fish were hitting light and spitting the Berkley out before the strike was realized and holding on to the Zoom due the salt taste. It was extremely pressured water that we were fishing.

I’ll take salt over scent but both are good.

I became a believer in scented baits last season. A Friend of mine gave me a bag of berkely power worms. They happen to be prototype brown, 4″ ring worms that stunk to high heaven. One sunday afternoon on pool 9 we ran a little test. Std black and white ring worm (no scent) vs. the Berkely power ring worm. Scented Power worm had a better than two to one bite ratio vs. the non-scented black and white ring worm. That was enough for me to make sure scent is always incorporated in my soft plastics.

was the power ring worm black and white also?

i have to good 6 inch h&h ring worms in black and white and they catch fish really good till the pressure getts up seems to me now a jig bite is making a come back on the river i believe due to the conditioning of the bass

bass see black and white,blu ,chratruce ring worms all the time now maybe that brown one was just a little something diffrent that triggerd the bite not just the power?

I have confidence in a product called Kickin Bass-Crawfish Scent. A few years ago a buddy and I experimented with same color/size jig/frog combination for smallies at night, one with scent applied, one not… the scented baits were remarkably more productive. We even attempted to reel smallies to the boat without setting the hook to see how long they would hold it… now that is an interesting experience. None to the net, but close. For sure, they held the bait much longer when scented versus not.

While I have tried many scents, both impregnated and applied products, such as Berkely power baits, Real Craw, Yum, etc., and caught plenty of fish on/with each, I still catch most of all my bass on hard baits like spinners / buzzers / cranks, or soft baits such as senkos and tubes without worrying about the need for an additive scent. If it is tough, like post frontal slow, then a scent applied to a slow presentation might trigger that bite you may not get otherwise.

Noise or vibration producing baits seem to work better for me.

Some things, like Chompers , stink worse than a box of dead crawlers. They may work and some may love them…. but I do not care to use them.

I agree. I read a pretty good article that said to use natural drab colors in high presure situations to get bit. Maybe that was part of why the 4″ Brown ring worm did so well.