pike deadbait scents

Anybody ever been successful with scents on deadbait. Like smelt oil? Wondering if it would work on a dead shiner or sucker. Im from ashland, and I know smelt works awesome but I live in eau claire now and game warden says all bait must be from a non great lakes bait shop. Otherwise to legally stick with smelt I’m supposed to cook it first, or wreck it with that borax and salt mix

I’ve used scents on deadbaits for a long time fishing for pike. I hate to admit it now, but 30 or so years ago I actually used WD-40 and I’m convinced it worked at times. That was a long time ago and I’d never intentionally put something like WD-40 in the water these days.
I like the Berkley scents now. I’ll use Catfish or Walleye scents, I’m not sure it makes any difference if it’s one flavor or the other, but there are days that I think it definitely makes a difference. It never seems to hurt.

Back in the day….we used dead smelt all the time. The last thing we would do before dropping it down the hole was to step on it, on the theory that the smashed up glob of smelt meat would let out more scent than the intact fish. If added scents really work, then a guy could use practically anything, like maybe a hot dog. That would be great! Easily obtainable, relatively inexpensive, organic, and if you get skunked you really could eat your bait.

SR

Thanks alot. I have the walleye I’ll try it this wknd. I have tried a dead shiner and sucker without scent and no action.

I’ve also tried that smelly jelly (ultra smelt) , and that orange powder. No luck Just looking thru my stuff seen some berkley alive spray think I’ll try that on one tip up and the berkley walleye or catfish on some others. Buddy just called guess i’m goin in the morning well see

Steve Root wrote:

If added scents really work, then a guy could use practically anything, like maybe a hot dog.

SR

My buddy claimed that he could catch a pike with a hot dog on a tip up. I didn’t think he could. He did, I was shocked.

I’ve heard that from numerous people and they are honest to me but I’ve not tried it, I’ve injected scents into dead bait and poked a hole in em but have had mixed results, use to catch lotsa of pike on just dead smelt when we’d sein em

Hot dogs do work. Very common bait for old timers. I once cleaned a pike with a half hot dog in its belly.

well didnt try the hot dogs yet lol, but did try dead shiners soaked in smelt juice over night. 9 flags on the dead shiners, vs 2 flags on live ones with no scent. Did try berkley walleye scent on one dead shiner and got one flag. But so far nothing has beat the real smelt juice. When the scent wore off didnt get as many flags either. Maybe I could mix it with a litlle olive oil.