Upperhands Scents announced a new scent a while ago and I was one of the lucky persons to get a sample bottle to work with. Little bits of feedback are beginning to come back from people who have tried this scent so I'll share that here.
As filled orders for call-ins, I offered to send a couple baits using the Cherry Bomb scent. One bait was packaged with the scent cooked in and the other sample bait had the scent as packaging oil. I asked each recipient to simple send a quick email letting me know how they liked the scent, did it work for them and which method of offering was preferred. Those who have replied to date regarding the samples are just about 50-50 on the fence as to preference. I have a large order of some walleye baits in a shop now that will get put to use thru the winter months. The shop owner made a preference towards the cooked-in method as a way to help cover the many smells that accumulate in the gloves of anglers fishing in the very cold conditions. He felt that "wet" baits would be harder for him to keep clean in the shop and would also be much easier to handle in the boat where hands can be wet. I should be getting feedback from this shop beginning pretty soon when the really serious late fall fishing kicks in gear.
I have taken some time to fish the scent on a whole bunch of different profiles of crappie and panfish baits. I wanted to see if the scent was the draw to hits when color or bait profile/action was really specific. Again, about 50% of the time I saw an improvement in the number of hits and hooked fish when baits having the scent were put on in lieu of an identical bait with no scent. I tried baits with the scent cooked in and baits in the bag with the scent as bag oil. I honestly feel that cooked in baits did better but the ration was still right about 50-50. The fish seemed to hang on better when the scent was "in" the bait, not on it. That's just my personal observation. The baits I worked with personally were used while dock fishing and while in the boat.
I think I mentioned this little trick before that I have used with cod liver oil and Gulp bait juice from bait bottles. I get a small package of different colored cotton pom-poms from a fabric store that are about the size of a 177 bb. I pick out the black and white ones and bag them up along with a sewing needle to put in the bucket with my tackle. Before I tie on a head I run the line thru the needle and thread that thru one of the little pom-poms [light colored heads get the white pom-pom, dark colored heads get black] and run it up the line far enough to tie the jig on without it getting in the way. Then I snug the fur ball right up to the head. For jigs 1/16 and larger this is a real trick, 1/16 is about the low-end limit though without messing with the drop rate. Then I add a drop of whatever scent I want on the ball of fluff. For those not wanting to have free-roaming scent in their boxes, this works great. As for Cherry Bomb, it did a great job when it was used in this fashion and the fish were hitting, but when the fish were tight lipped they wouldn't hit much of anything and size, profile and action wouldn't matter much either.
I'm always one of those "low odor" guys and garlic scents have always been a bane to me. Cherry Bomb cooked into the baits has a very controllable odor level. The scent-in plastics sealed in zip locks did not smell up the bucket or become offensive to me in the least. Of course as soon as the package was opened the scent would become apparent and I tolerate that. I just don't want the whole pail smelling like a garlic press. The baits I tried that had the scent "on them" were in the same zip locks but were also inside a separate Tupperware bowl with a new lid. Worked great for odor control!
I am panfish, crappie and walleye for the bulk of my fishing and have been pretty skeptical about scenting. When Gulp came along with their small baits in the bottle bath of juice, it sold me after the first cast, literally. Then the Trigger X stuff came along and again the juice had me convinced that for walleyes I'd died and gone to heaven. The Cherry Bomb has now helped me turn yet another corner. So far the Cherry Bomb hasn't affected the color or clarity of the plastics used with it like the Gulp and Trigger X juices do. The Cherry Bomb is simple to cook in or to add to bags as a packaging aid and without messing with the colors I say its a darned good addition to anyone's scenting needs.
