I'm pretty in to scents. Whether they "work" or not, I use them and believe that they might get me a few more bites or help me hook a few more fish because they lube the bait.

For jigs, I like Smelly Jelly Bass Feast. Sometimes I'll put my jig in the jar, then spray some Bang Pure Craw scent into the jar and swipe it all around so it loosens up the Bass Feast :)

I was using Hot Sauce on my big baits but have basically switched to this Mega Strike stuff. The Mega Strike stays on your bait forever. If you put it on at the end of the day, you have to remember to wipe it off when you get home. I'm putting this stuff on all my swimbaits, hard or soft. With this stuff, what I have been doing is taking a little on the end of my finger and wiping it in front of the hooks and even on the hooks. If a fish clamps on my bait in front of the hook, maybe the fact that it's lubricated will help me to get the hook in the fish better. I have missed some huge fish on rubber swimbaits and when I pulled the bait it and looked at the teeth marks, you could see where the fish grabbed the bait, and then it's teeth skidded across the bait for a half inch or so. The rubber grabs at their teeth and I don't care how hard you set the hook, there are times when huge fish can clamp down so hard on your bait that you won't be able to penetrate the hook. It just takes a long time to realize this because it takes a long time to number 1, get a lot of big bites on rubber baits, and number 2, miss enough to realize what is going on. Big fish will do this on jigs too. Since I don't usually fish braided line, I have to make up for the lack of strength in the hookset in other ways. Scent can help you out in this regard.

When I think about this subject, I always think about this picture. This was the teeth marks from a 13lber that ate a rago hardbait. On a hardbait, the teeth slip down the bait. I have a 7.5" generic swimbait laying around here somewhere that I missed a fish on with a bite mark like this, and on that bait, the teeth went dit dit dit down the bait, not a smooth scratch like this pic. Foods for thought!


http://www.calfishing.com/images/daily_reports/1_20_02_rob_5-1_generic.jpg