TRUTH About SCENTS

[liketrolling]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oviKF2--...sFishingHQ

[Kent]

Robert, interesting video.

[joatmon]

Thanks for sharing that. Food for thought (pun intended).

[sliverslinger]

Thanks for the information.

[Bduck]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing the video, Robert. What about the gels that are used? Are they water base or considered oil based? Wouldn't they be like a vaseline? After all gels adhere to the bait/lure with very little washing off.

[Jager]

So, it is pretty difficult to find safety data sheets on fish attractants. 

The one I found was here for Lunker Lotion

https://www.englundmarine.com/SDS/ATS6502.pdf

80-90% Mineral Oil

1-20% Geletants

.5-15% Trade Secrets

.5-15% Colorants

There are a couple things I will disagree with in regards to oils and solubility. 

The highest level of water solubility, the more you will have to apply the stuff. 

Like is a product was very water soluble, then it would lose flavor as soon as it hit the water.

Making it effectively useless unless you are dead sticking. 

So, you need a mechanism for slowly dispersing the chemical attractant.

Disperse too fast and you blow your scent load too quickly. 

Which is where gelatin comes into play as well as the oils. 

Gelatin generally will break away slowly and is soluble in water (Gelatin is generally made of amino acids from animal products)

Gelatin is generally sticky in nature and will adhere to your bait. 

Mineral Oil is a good way to make the product less concentrated, so you get more uses out of the bottle and get more product. 

It also provides lubrication and prevents the complete breakdown of the gelatin rapidly due to being insoluble in water.

Mineral Oil also is not harmful to fish and breaks down naturally. 

Without the mineral oil, it would probably be 5x more costly to buy and would have to be applied more often due to the gelatin wanting to dissolve in water.  Mineral Oil is very cheap to produce, which keeps the cost of the product down as well. 

The other thing that oil can do combined with the gelatin and is carry the scent further due to not being soluble in water and carrying pieces of the gelatin along as they dissolve. 

Now, this is just me thinking out loud. I could be right or I could be wrong, it is just the way I am wrapping my head around the topic.

[DanzTuna]

When surf fishing the Gulf Coast I use a product called Fish Bites. It's a gelatin base over a cloth mesh and comes in shrimp, clam, and in other flavors and various colors. Because it's a gelatin, it releases the scent/flavor slowly and the mesh keeps it on the hook while it's washing around in the waves. Absolutely deadly for pompano, whiting, sheepshead, spec's etc. The saltwater formulas don't work well in colder freshwater but I understand the company is working on some freshwater products other than catfish bait.

[Bassin_Blitz]

One thing to consider is that many of the main forage species are very oily fish, Cisco, Herring, Shad, Carp. So if a school of Gizzard shad are getting hammered likely alot of fish oils in the water no ?

I hate scents because they are smelly and messy, but I do carry smelly jelly and procure in my boat for really tough days.