Home-made attractants across species

The species pages hold some fifty recipes — they boil down to these families. How much does each one do for each fish?

Little · Useful · Made for it

Home-made attractants across species
	Largemouth Bass	Smallmouth Bass	Walleye	Northern Pike	Muskellunge (Muskie)	Trout (Rainbow · Brook · Lake)	Yellow Perch	Crappie
Water-based
Salt–garlic brine / bag marinade	Made for it — Made for it: salt + garlic buys hold time on slow plastics	Made for it — The home version of Taku Ito's aged marinade — tubes, Ned baits, drop-shot plastics	Little	Little	Presque jamais	Useful — Garlic is a proven stocked-trout flavour; keep the salt light	Little	Little
Shellfish / craw stock	Useful — Craw flavour on jigs and creature baits around rock and wood	Made for it — Crayfish eater: stock soaked into tube stuffing; in current it lays a trail	Little	Presque jamais	Presque jamais	Useful — Shrimp is a classic trout flavour for bait and soft beads	Useful — Small invertebrate eater — a shrimp note suits tiny baits	Little
Baitfish juice / brine / gel	Useful — Shad dip on trailers and swimbaits where shad are the forage	Useful — Drop-shot dip; water-based, so it trails in current	Made for it — The most scent-driven predator here short of trout; in rivers the trail recruits fish	Made for it — Injected into a static dead bait in cold water — the one place scent pulls pike	Little	Useful — Lake trout on spoons and tubes: lengthens the hold	Useful — Minnow-head flavour on spoons and small jigs	Made for it — Minnow eater: juice is safe on marabou and hair where oil is not
Worm / nightcrawler juice	Little	Little	Made for it — Crawler flavour on harness plastics and jig bodies	Presque jamais	Presque jamais	Made for it — Brook and stocked trout: the worm is the reference bait	Made for it — A piece of worm is the standard perch bait — juice puts it on plastic	Little
Maggot / waxworm mash	Presque jamais	Presque jamais	Little	Presque jamais	Presque jamais	Useful — Ice and stillwater trout take spikes and waxworms readily	Made for it — The ice-fishing standard: tiny jigs tipped or flavoured with larvae	Useful — Winter crappie on tiny jigs: larvae turn a long look into a bite
Krill / shrimp soak	Little	Little	Little	Presque jamais	Presque jamais	Made for it — Most scent-sensitive fish we cover; krill and shrimp are core salmonid flavours	Made for it — Krill water on micro plastics under the ice	Useful — A mild shrimp note on tube jigs when fish are only looking
Fish-sauce dip	Little	Little	Useful — Strong, salty, water-soluble — a quick dip for jig plastics	Useful — For slow baits and dead baits in cold water only	Presque jamais	Little	Little	Little
Anise–sugar dip	Little	Little	Little	Presque jamais	Presque jamais	Useful — Old stocked-rainbow flavour; anglers swear by it, controlled evidence is thin	Little	Useful — Traditional panfish flavour — lore more than lab
Coffee–salt soak	Little	Little	—	—	Presque jamais	—	—	—
Nibble-style dough	Presque jamais	Presque jamais	Presque jamais	Presque jamais	Presque jamais	Made for it — Dough baits are THE stocked-trout bait where bait is legal	Useful — A crumb on a tiny hook works when the school is only pecking	Made for it — A nibble on the hook point is standard under lights and docks
Oil-based
Garlic oil	Made for it — Bag oil for worms and creature baits: masks hands, extends the hold	Useful — Works with craw flavour; keep it off hair jigs	Useful — Garlic–anise on night jigs, when the fish hunts by nose and lateral line	Little	Presque jamais	Useful — A drop on spinners and spoons is a standard stocked-trout trick	Little	Little
Tinned-fish / sardine / minnow oil	Useful — Shad-water baits: trailers and swimbaits	Useful — A nose drop on deep drop-shot baits	Useful — Minnow oil on jig plastics; oil makes no trail, it buys hold time	Made for it — The classic: fish oil injected or brushed onto a dead bait	Little	Useful — Anise–tuna oil on hardware for lakers and stocked fish	Useful — Minnow-head oil, a toothpick drop on tiny jigs	Useful — A sardine-oil drop on plastic — never on marabou
Craw / shellfish oil and jig paste	Made for it — Jig-and-craw fishing is where taste decides hold or spit	Made for it — Crayfish is the staple; paste stays on in cold water	Presque jamais	Presque jamais	Presque jamais	Presque jamais	Little	Presque jamais
Anise oil / sticky paste	Useful — The old worm-oil flavour; mostly a masking and confidence scent	Little	Little	Presque jamais	Little	Useful — Traditional on spoons and spinners for stocked fish	Little	Useful — Anise–minnow oil on tube jigs
Cod-liver / krill oil	Little	Little	Little	Little	Presque jamais	Useful — Oily marine note on spoons for lake trout	Useful — Toothpick drop on ice jigs	Little
Cold-water solid-fat smear	Little	Useful — Cold-water jig paste that liquid oils cannot match	Useful — Coconut-oil smear stays solid and stays on in cold rivers and under ice	Useful — Fish oil thickens near freezing — a fat base keeps it on a dead bait	Presque jamais	Useful — Laker spoon paste for deep, cold trolling and jigging	Little	Little
Neutral masking rub	Useful — Covers DEET, sunscreen and fuel on slow plastics	Useful — A bad smell fails the close inspection smallmouth are known for	Useful — The hand that threads the leech is the problem — mask or wash	Little	Useful — The only scent job that matters for muskie: nothing bad on the bait	Made for it — Salmonids react to human hand rinse (L-serine) at extreme dilution	Little	Little
Dry
Salt–garlic shake	Made for it — Bag-shake for stick baits and worms; salt also adds fall weight	Useful — Light coat on Ned and tube baits	Little	Presque jamais	Presque jamais	Little	Little	Little
Shrimp / krill slime powder	Useful — Turns to slime when wet: taste without an oily film	Made for it — The home version of Ito's bite powder — water-soluble, so it trails in current	Useful — Dusts jig plastics; dissolves into the water the fish is facing	Presque jamais	Presque jamais	Useful — Krill dust on soft beads and small plastics where scent is legal	Useful — Krill powder on micro plastics	Useful — A pinch on tube jigs when the school is looking, not biting
Salt-cured baitfish	Little	Little	Made for it — Salted minnows for tipping jigs — real meat beats any potion	Made for it — Firms a dead bait so it survives the cast and the soak	Little	Useful — Lake trout take cut bait and salted minnows where bait is legal	Useful — A minnow head or a sliver of salted minnow on the spoon	Useful — Salted minnows keep when live ones will not
Borax roe cure	Presque jamais	Presque jamais	Presque jamais	Presque jamais	Presque jamais	Made for it — The classic steelhead and trout bait — and the most regulated one	Little	Presque jamais
The common denominator
Unscented hand and bait wash	Useful — Bass detect DEET at about 1 part per million (Berkley lab work)	Useful — Same lab finding; clear water and close inspection raise the stakes	Useful — Live-bait hands: wash before you thread the leech	Little	Made for it — The whole scent game for muskie is a clean bait	Made for it — Clean skin is itself a signal to salmonids — wash, then handle the fly or bead	Useful — Tiny baits carry a big share of whatever is on your fingers	Useful — Bug spray season is crappie-at-night season — keep it off the jig

Four things recur everywhere: salt, a real-food flavour (fish, shellfish, worm), a carrier that suits the water (water-based trails in current, oil sticks and masks), and clean hands. Pick the flavour from what the fish eats.

Les niveaux sont des jugements tirés des notes sur les espèces de ce site — des tendances, pas des garanties. La note de chaque case indique sur quoi repose le niveau.

Fiches comparatives des espèces

Chapitres liés

Achigan GB · DIY fish attractants (home-made scent) — Every recipe family graded for every fish: little, useful, made for it
Forage — What a fish eats tells you which flavour to mix