DO FISH ATTRACTANTS REALLY WORK?

In the past couple of years while fishing in a local club I have noticed that my fellow anglers each have their favorite brand of fish attractant readily available. I too have a couple bottles in my tackle box that I won in club raffles, but they rarely get used. I’ve often wondered if these canned and bottled scents really make a difference. Some of these guys swear by them, while others like myself, have had their doubts. These doubts prompted me to study into this matter a little deeper by reading, and with a little on the water experimentation.

I have a really good friend and fishing partner in my club that some of the members have nicknamed "goop", for obvious reasons. He has his secret sauce that he truly believes in. While fishing the same rigs and baits, with the only difference being that he applied the scent, I found one day he’ll catch more and the next day I would. So far I hadn’t really found the answer I was looking for. I then tried fishing my rigs with and without attractants but still came to no clear conclusions. Now it was time to hit the books. While reading on this subject I came across some interesting studies that have been done. They gave me a much better understanding of the role attractants play in fishing. First of all, they won’t attract the fish. Studies have shown that these applied scents won’t bring in the fish, but once they have taken your bait they are more likely to keep it longer if they like the taste. Unscented worms, taken by bass, may be spit out in seconds, while scented worms were held up to thirty seconds or so. They also seemed to keep the more natural flavors, such as crawdad, longer. Another interesting observation was that a couple drops of attractant did as well as a soaked worm. At the high cost of some of these scents, fishermen can save themselves some money by realizing this. Here are a couple of ideas on how to stretch that can or bottle. First, it is always a good idea to wash your hands from any foreign scents you might have brought with you to the lake so why not use a dab of your fish attractant. After rubbing some in your hands you will be applying it to every worm you handle. Second, pour or spray a little into a zip-lock baggy and drop in the worms you want to alter. That same baggy can hold worms in your scent for several trips to the lake.

All of this aside, I probably won’t be loading up on fish attractants since most of the hand-poured baits I use have some sort of scent added, but I will have a little in the box.