Water Based or Oil Based Scents For Salmon and Trout

Is it better to use water based or oil based scents for salmon and trout? This is a question that serious fishermen will probably have at least once in their life. The goal of using scents is to create a scent trail that leads to your bait. Or, if you’re jigging for salmon, the goal would be to create a sort of scent cloud that attracts the fish to the area. Kind of like chumming. Well, I got to wondering this from an article I read.

Berkley’s manager of fish sciences and product testing claimed in an interview for an article in Outdoor Life that scents had to be water-soluble or fish wouldn’t be able to smell them. They also claimed that oil based scents don’t work. These guys are the game changers that brought us power bait, but I’ve got a lot of oil based scents, and oil based scents are extremely popular for salmon fishermen, so it led me down the research rabbit hole.

What are fishing scents used for?

Fish have a much better sense of smell than humans. Think of a shark, traveling miles to the smell of blood. That’s not an old wives tale. So what does scent do? First off it covers the human smell. Secondly, it lets fish know that there’s something foreign and food like in the water. Sometimes the goal is to mimic the smell of food, such as a krill, shrimp, or other fish scent. Or perhaps the goal is to smell foreign, interesting, and nonthreatening, such as garlic or vanilla extract. Fish pick up on these scents and come in to check it out. The goal is to have a scent trail that leads right to your bait, lure, or hook. The fact that Powerbait exists and has done so well is proof that scents for fishing work and are important.

Scents Need to be Water-Soluble

Scents need to be water soluble, which means it needs to be dissolved into, and absorbed by the water. So, from a scientific stand point, it’s common knowledge that oil and water do not mix. BUT oil can mix with things that are water soluble. The easiest example is sugar. You can mix vegetable oil and sugar together, and dissolve the sugar in the oil. Sugar also dissolves into water. So, by mixing the sugary oil and water, you’ll get sugar into the water. Not as much as you would if you had just mixed sugar in the water to begin with, but you’ll get some. On that same note, since oil and water don’t mix perfectly, you’d get a delayed release of the sugar over time. This is how oil based scents work.

Can Fish Actually Smell Oil or Not?

I know a thing or two about fishing, but I’m not quite ready to tell mr. Powerbait himself that he’s wrong about fish bait scent, but its important to put the article into context. This article was done by a bass fisherman. Why does that make a difference? My research suggests that oil based scents don’t work on bass, or carp, or some other fish for that matter, but they work on salmonids, such as trout and salmon species. This research was still not perfect, because there are plenty of bass fishermen that are also extremely careful around oil and gas because they claim it messes with their fishing, so I’m not entirely sold on this, but there is a general consensus that oil baits do work on trout and salmon.

Do Water Based Scents Work Better?

From my research and testing I didn’t get conclusive evidence, but I have developed a working theory with some experience to back it up. My current working theory is that water based products let off more scent BUT need to be applied more often. Oil based scents don’t put off as much scent, but last longer on your bait.

So Should I Get Oil Based or Water Based Scent?

If you want an all around scent that you could use for all types of fishing, I would go with a water based product. If you are planning to only target trout, or you’re willing to have several bottles or sprays of scents in your garage or tackle box, then get an oil based one.

Best Oil Based Scents

Pro-Cure

So after a little research on pro-cure products all their oil based products have characteristics to make them water soluble so they also disperse like natural products.

Pro-Cure Garlic Bloody Tuna Bait Oil, 8 Ounce

Pro-Cure Anise Bloody Tuna Bait Oil

Best Water Based Scents

Berkley

I will point out that nowhere in their product descriptions on any website that sells these did they say if their sprays were oil or water based. That said, people say that these are water based, and they work well.

Berkley Gulp Alive Recharge Liquid Bait

Pick Your Bait With Scent in Mind

Gulp Maggots are artificial little maggot looking worms that are loaded with scent. They’re a great scent option. I use them to tip the hooks on lures, especially when I don’t want to have to add scent sprays, gels, or oils to my hooks or lures. Here’s what they claim with their product:

Additional research showed that they used a water based resin to make the Gulp! products rather than a PVC or other type of oil based product, so they claim that releases more scent. I tend to agree with them. They work fantastic for kokanee fishing.

Berkley Gulp! Maggot, 1-1/2-Oz.

Other Ways to Control Scent

The single biggest way to control your non-fishing scents is to keep things clean. We strongly recommend that you pick up some Joy lemon scented dish soap. It works wonders on oils, and its what the big salmon fishers usually go with. With natural citrus extracts, but it doesn’t have a ton of scent. Besides, natural citrus smells, from the research I did, weren’t shown to make it less likely to catch fish. On the contrary, big salmon fishing operations and guides often carry this soap on the boat to keep oils and scents off of people’s hands, and this soap is extremely effective at removing oils but isn’t harsh on the environment. I found this deal on Joy Ultra Dishwashing Liquid, Lemon Scent where the pack of 2 was actually cheaper than a single bottle of the same size.

Joy Ultra Dishwashing Liquid, Lemon Scent 12.60 oz (Pack of 3)