Bass Fishing And Attractants - What's Your Take?

So fact or myth...will scented attractants help you in your bass fishing endeavours? It's an argument that is debated constantly and in the main, the answer is usually yes.

Many anglers, particularly those new to bass fishing, will come across the scented attractant method very early in the peace. I guess when they eventually get around to exploring the scented attractant theory they are then confronted with any number of products on the market. They are probably thinking at this moment that this bass fishing game is a bit more complicated than they first thought.

Myth Versus Fact

Bass fishing with scent attractants has been thrown up so many times that it has almost become a myth. However it is not actually as effective as you would be led to believe. Indeed it does make a difference to the number of strikes you will get but then so will bettering your angling skills, your style of fishing, your bait type, and the list goes on. In other words, even though it has been proved that it does attract the bass, it is not really the ultimate weapon in the fisherman’s arsenal; rather one among the multitude of skills he needs to use for bass fishing.

We probably should take this one step further. Bass fishing attractants are more of a cover up for human odour. In brief, rather than the attractant luring the fish it's more a case of it camouflaging the angler's odour than being responsible for attracting the fish. You may have a petrol odour on your hands from putting gas in the boat. Then you handle the bait and guess what, that petrol odour then contaminates the bait. I hope you get the picture.

The Controversy Of Whether It Is Or It Isn’t

Many anglers would vouch for the fact that bass fishing is definitely easier and more successful after the scents were added to bait while others refute such statements by saying that it really does not make that much of a difference, though they agree that it is visible that the bass react better to the bait with scent than to the bait which does not have scent. However, this does not in any way imply a magical bass fishing tool for the angler.

Other Angles Of Thought

Let us leave aside for some time the question of whether bass fishing is really responsive to scents. Facts say that bass are put off by tobacco smell, detergent smell, bug (mosquito) repellant smell and even sun-block lotion. Now logically speaking, if the bass did not have any preference for smell, would this be possible? Then, one can logically deduct that the bass do have olfactory senses and that it can use it for defense. If they can do that, why can’t bass use the same sense of smell to track food?

You've got to love the fishing game. Bass fishing is a great past time for many. Fishing arguments and debates just add to it's attraction for many anglers.