Hiya John,
Personally i don't bother with any additives/scents to my baits.
I've never fished your patch but if your after Smoothies peeler crab is usually the best bait. For Rays or Doggies you should'nt go far wrong with a mix of Sandeel, Bluey, Squid &/or Mackerel.
My thoughts are if additives were any good we'd all be using them- neither me or any of the lads i fish with are.
Save your money & spend it on bait mate.
Might also be worth using the search function on here to check previous reports from your area & info on other marks near you.
Tight lines.
Rick

 

1: They can be good under certain applications.
2: I go for dipping my baits and also injecting the stuff into the bait, such as frozen worm for instance.
3: Never found any particular brand type to be the best.

As noted above, in that if you have good bait and fish around the mark then you should catch with or without the additive. I tend to only occasionally buy bait additives just for my own fun and confidence.

 

Personally don't find they add anything. For flatties, a bit of squid left out 24hrs seems better than fresh. Same with black lug, leave it to go gooey. But fish are not stupid and they will find a fresh piece of mackerel or bluey in cloudy water. If they couldn't they'd all starve pretty quick

 

Hiya John,
I've never fished your patch but if your after Smoothies

Hi Rick,

What fish would you class as "smoothies"? I'm still picking this up, so lots of unfamiliar terms flying around!

Cheers

John...

 

Hiya John,
As Steve said above its short for Smoothound mate.
Rick

 

Whilst fishing with my brother once, I used a bait additive (can't remember name) but it made no difference. My bro caught two more fish than I did, and we were fishing more or less identical tackle and distance. So I haven't bothered since.

smoothies is short for smoothhound by the way.

 

So my "newbie" understanding of scent additives is... pour / spray some on your lures or existing bait, to make it more smelly, or make it smell like a cocktail.

I'm trying to beach fish in very muddy tidal estuary water on the Severn estuary, so smelly bait is probably better than visible bait. I'm looking for bass, cod, anything like that.

I have tried a cocktail of real squid and real black ragworm (expensive when the stuff keeps getting torn off by the weeds in the water), and caught a conger eel (which was fun), but no real fish yet.

So...

1. Are these scent additives any good?
2. Is there a recommended way to use them?
3. Is there a recommended brand or type / flavour to use?

Sorry for the questions, but this world of fishing is sooooo much bigger than I thought! lol

My club colleague used to soak his squid in an additive and he did catch more than his fair share in the boat. Also I have fished with hardback crabs on a boat and the ones with peeler crab flavour added outfished the natural ones.

 

Like lots of things in fishing,if you try something and you get a good catch,then you`ll feel you did well because you gave yourself "an edge",and that`s all that matters really....whether such additives actually make a difference is always gunna be open for debate....personally i don`t think you can beat quality fresh bait for the majority of fishing,so i never bother with additives.

 

Yeah, fresh bait isn't so easy for me. Mine comes from the freezer, as there's no local bait shop, and I can only grab a few hours here or there on an ad-hoc basis.

 

Don't worry about that, as long as the bait is frozen in good condition and looked after to prevent freezer burn etc then it will catch plenty of fish.
I regularly use frozen baits, lugworm, mackerel fillets, blueys, dirty squid, sandeel and peeler crab are what I normally keep in my freezer. Ensure good stock rotation and air tight seals and invest in a good freezer for storing for any real length of time and for bigger quantities.

 

Yeah, fresh bait isn't so easy for me. Mine comes from the freezer, as there's no local bait shop, and I can only grab a few hours here or there on an ad-hoc basis.

Frozen is almost as fresh as you can get, if comes from reputable companies. I use frozen stuff all the time now and so do the majority of anglers due to work restraints.
The fish are not going to swim by a bait be that frozen or fresh when their needs are high.

 

I never bother with any additives, Ive used Pilchard oil a few times and have never caught a fish while using it, I did try WD40 when the craze for using it started about 15 years ago and it did seem to work for Dogs and Pout

 

I think there is some truth regarding bait addatives/enhancers as Gulp jelly worm things seem to catch and they spend a lot of cash upon research for them. The problem is that if there is no fish in the area for your bait to attract it will matter not what you have in the end of the line!

 

I think there is some truth regarding bait addatives/enhancers as Gulp jelly worm things seem to catch and they spend a lot of cash upon research for them. The problem is that if there is no fish in the area for your bait to attract it will matter not what you have in the end of the line!

I had my best shore caught Plaice on one of those Gulp worms and it weighed 5 lb 3 oz. I used gulp alive natural coloured worms, The large ones, They look just like white rag.

 

I use frozen bait all of the time. The only fresh bait I use is rag worm.