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Does adding bait to reaction lures help get bites?

Absolutely, adding bait or scent to reaction lures can indeed increase your chances of getting bites, especially in certain conditions. Let's break it down:

Reaction Lures and Their Purpose

Reaction lures, such as crankbaits, spinnerbaits, and jerkbaits, are designed to trigger a bass's instinct to strike out of aggression or curiosity rather than hunger. These lures often rely on their movement, vibration, and flash to provoke a reaction from the fish.

Adding Scent to Reaction Lures

From the video context provided, particularly the insights from "Scents and Attractants: Do They Work?" by BassResource, we know that bass are primarily sight feeders. However, scent can play a role in making a bass hold onto the lure longer once it bites. This can be crucial for setting the hook effectively.

  • Slow Moving vs. Fast Moving Lures: Scent is more beneficial on slow-moving lures where bass have more time to inspect the bait. For fast-moving reaction lures, the impact of scent might be less pronounced, but it still can help in certain scenarios, especially when the bite is tough.

Practical Tips

  1. Scent Application: For reaction lures, you can apply scent to soft plastic trailers or skirts. This can make the lure more appealing and encourage the bass to hold on longer.
  2. Types of Scents: Garlic scents are popular and effective, as mentioned in "How to Use Scents and Dyes to Get More Bites" by BamaBass. Brands like JJ's Magic and Spike It are commonly used.
  3. Color Contrast: As highlighted in "Science Proves You Will Double The Fish You Catch With This Fishing Lure Tip!" by Matt Stefan Fishing, color contrast can significantly increase reaction strikes. Adding a scent that also dyes the bait can create this contrast, making the lure more visible and enticing.

When to Use Scent

  • Tough Conditions: When the bite is slow, adding scent can give you an edge.
  • Clear Water: In clear water, bass rely more on sight, but a subtle scent can still make a difference.
  • Cold Water: In colder water, bass are less aggressive, and a scented bait can encourage them to bite and hold on longer.

Conclusion

While scent might not drastically increase the initial strike rate of fast-moving reaction lures, it can definitely help in making bass hold onto the lure longer, giving you a better chance to set the hook. Additionally, using color contrasts and ensuring your lure has an appealing scent can make a significant difference, especially in challenging fishing conditions.

If you have any more specific questions or need further clarification, feel free to ask! Happy fishing! 🎣

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Transcript
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Science Proves You Will Double The Fish You Catch With This Fishing Lure Tip! by Matt Stefan Fishing get to the point where they're not going to bite it again generally speaking it takes a significant amount of time before those fish show interest again in that bait so it's almost like they learn that that's not a that's not an item for them to eat now these baits that Berkeley has don't have hooks so they're just running the baits around the tank and the fish are coming up and reacting with it and they're not getting to eat it so they're learning that it's not a a forage item for them even though they're not actually getting hooked so it may not necessarily be that these fish are learning that it's a dangerous object or something that could potentially create pain or it's a negative uh a negative outcome for them other than they're just not going to eat that object so whether they taste it whether they don't like the feel of it I can't necessarily answer that but they definitely are doing uh experiments to determine what generates more strikes from fish and one of the things that they mentioned seem so basic but they said it literally can generate twice the amount of reaction out of a fish and that has to do with colors like this the color basically being that there is a color contrast so you've got light sides and then you've got a dark top so there is a direct contrast between the colors there so
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Scents and Attractants: Do They Work? | Bass Fishing by Bass Fishing Tips & Techniques by BassResource so why even bother putting a scent  on it if it's already got a scent?  But there's a debate. Would you have caught  that fish if you had scent on it or not? I mean,   holding on to it longer seems like  that gives more chance to set the hook.   But would I have already set the hook anyway if  that bait didn't have scent on it? It's debatable.  So, this is why there's a big debate about  it. And even I don't have an answer for it.   But what I can tell you is this, when the bite is  really slow, and when the fishing is really tough,   I know that scent doesn't hurt. And so I want  to put all the odds in my favor. If I got a   real slow moving bait that the fish has time  to examine to look at. If I can put scent on it   and it's going to give that fish an extra  incentive to bite it, then I'll use scent.   Fast moving lures I don't think really have  much of an effect. But I will use it in those   situations where the bite is really tough. And if  it helps, great, but I know it isn't a deterrent.  So, I hope that helps. For more tips and  tricks like this, visit BassResource.com.
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02:06
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Scents and Attractants: Do They Work? | Bass Fishing by Bass Fishing Tips & Techniques by BassResource to factor especially when the bass is feeding?  Well, bass are primarily sight feeders, right?   If they can see it, you know, that's what they  focus on when they go to strike something. Now,   they use their sense of hearing and their lateral  lines to perhaps sense something nearby or to   find it, but they'll use their sense  of sight to actually go in and hit it.   As a last bit of information, they may  use smell. When they get close to a bait   or maybe it's a crawfish or something  they expect it to smell a certain way.   They may use that as a final okay  signal to end up striking it.  I think scent is actually, for me, from  what I've learned scent is actually,   or sense of smell, is a little bit more about  sensing danger, or things that turn off a bass.   For example, we do know, biologists do know that  oil, and gasoline, and nicotine, sunscreen, you   know, all those things, the smell of those things  turn off bass and make them not want to bite. So   it's more important to keep your hands clean  and make sure you don't get those kind of scents   on your bait. But does it make them bite? Does  it make them come in and actually bite a lure?  Well, I think what it does is it makes  them hold on to the lure a little bit more,   more so than it actually  causes them to strike a lure.  
Transcript
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How to Use Scents and Dyes to Get More Bites - Fishing Tips by BamaBass telling you when you do this you'll get a lot more bites it looks a lot more natural to the fish and they just can't resist it now most of your soft plastic baits are kind of self-explanatory like your lizards and worms either you're going to spray them or dip the tails but a couple things I like to do in the springtime I'll take that Magnum lizard dye that tail chartreuse that way it really stands out when I'm fishing these ten and twelve inch worms I like to spray those that way I get the whole worm and a garlic scent and then we also have like some spinnerbait trailers and that sort of thing that I'll die the the tips of those red if it's a white spinnerbait I'm using a white trailer I'll die that tip of that trailer red so it kind of flares out maybe looks like a bleeding or a fleeing shad so the soft plastics you know are kind of you can either spray them or dip them just the tails in and that will kind of give it that extra little touch and now one of the last bait types we'll go over or frogs most of the frogs that I use come you know pretty well painted out of the package but there's sometimes like a Fat Frog the white frog I like to add just a little bit of chartreuse and red on it I
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How to Use Scents and Dyes to Get More Bites - Fishing Tips by BamaBass folks at home we are in the middle of a tropical storm in South Alabama so I figured it would be a perfect opportunity for me to do some educational videos and teach you things like how I use scents to get more bites when I'm out on the water and the ways that I look at it is basically like when you walk into a movie theater you're not necessarily hungry but as soon as you smell that popcorn you immediately get the urge to eat and you want popcorn one that's kind of the same way it is in bass fishing a lot of times that garlic scent will entice that bite and not only entice it it'll it'll allow those fish to hold on to the bait for even longer make sure you get that good hook set and I use scent on basically every type of lure that I can get away with it really the only thing I don't use it on is hard baits but any kind of plastic jig jig trailer frog I like to use some sort of scent and I'll walk through the different types of scent that I like to use all right so there's two basic brands that I use for scent it's JJ's magic and Spike it and both are garlic scent I really like garlic scent above everything else but there's some that work in better situations than others for instance I like the coloring on
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Rick Clunn's Secret to Out-Fish Other Anglers on the Lake by Fish the Moment make them want to bite even if there's no competitive instinct yeah and again i'm always trying to put a science on everything and i don't know how successful i am at it but again that one individual fish under the dock is again he's just weighing energy used versus energy gained and uh the uh but i think you and again here's the bit here's another error we we make as anglers we're constantly trying to to define things by one variable and let's get back to the bait ball okay the bait ball concept is getting them excited so then if you add to that and which one of the ones in the bait ball might have zero in on well that can be again one that's it's a little bit separated from the bait ball or is that one that is kind of injured in the bait ball and obviously if you watch again we got so much available to us now and it's mostly ocean stuff where you watch tuna or sharks or dolphins go through a a huge school a bait their their initial target going through there is not necessary to eat them but it is to hurt some of them and then you can see those kind of fluttering are fluttering out of the out of the huge bait ball of fish and that's the one the other ones are coming in and just picking off like crazy

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