Scented fishing baits do they work?

[Berserker]

To answer my own question yes if you're using scented fishing baits for fish species that feed by smell like catfish for instance. I've used a lot of old whiskers catfish bait when I was kid and when you pop the lid off that baby you could smell it 100 feet away. Back in the late 60s a movement began and many articles were written about using anise oil on your Lures. I went to the drugstore and bought a bottle of it and my tackle box smelled great I love the smell of licorice but a lot of my lures melted into a plastic slime.

Then in the 70s there came tackle safe scented oils. And yes I bought some of that.
In the 80s Berkeley became famous for their scented lures Man if you didn’t have some of these in your tackle box you weren't watching TV, listening to the radio or reading fishing magazines. I owned a sporting goods store at this time had my own guide service and I was on the radio and hour and a half on two different radio stations every Saturday. I also had the honor of writing a fishing article once a week for the St. Paul Dispatch thanks to Dennis Anderson alongside Babe Winkelman and Al Lindner to name just a couple.

It was during this same period that I recalled an article I once read back in the 70s by a famous fisherman named Buck Perry. Buck Perry was widely known for calling bullshit on the scented lure theory. Mr. Perry would give a fishing exhibition after dipping his spoon plugs in gasoline and catching fish proving that most game fish react by site and not scent.
On a live radio show back in the 80s I dipped my ice ant and wax worm in the gasoline tank of my ice auger and caught just as many fish as my partner did who kept his lure clean.

To this day I still use scented oil on my plastic worms but only for the reason it keeps them soft and easier to work through weed cover. I am a firm believer that I could dip my spinner bait in liquid dog shit and catch as many bass as any purist that is afraid to even touch his lure for fear his L serene may contaminate it.
Berkley proves once again that big advertising money can sell anything.

[NNN0LHI]

1. I have tried both the scented and unscented worms

Never caught a fish letting the unscented ones just lie on the bottom. Got to work them. On the other hand I have caught fish with the scented ones just laying on the bottom.

My fishing partner uses strictly live bait while I use strictly crank baits. Occasionally he will do better than I do but generally I out fish him by at least 2 to one.

That is my experience.

Don

[Berserker]

2. My experience

is what ever you have the most faith in catches the most fish.