scents. Other ingredients can be garlic or anise extract, or other non- animal materi­als. Specific ingredients or con­coctions used to manufacture fish attractants mostly re­main a secret. Scents are big business in the angling world, and much like Coke or Pepsi executives are tight lipped about their beverages, so are tackle companies. About the only common denominator on all scent containers is the wording " not for human con­sumption." Masking Those Negative Smells No matter how hard we try not to, bringing some sort of a negative smell to the water with us is often unavoidable. " Bug spray ( DEET), sun­screen ( PABA), fragrances, and nicotine are substances that are repulsive to fish," said Pure Fishing Research Director Dr. Keith Jones. " Some substances, like DEET, are highly repulsive. Studies done in our labs demonstrate that largemouth bass, and probably many other species, can detect, and are repelled by DEET concentrations as low as 1 part per billion. Other substances, detergents for example, are also ex­tremely repulsive, as well as quite lethal. Nicotine would be only mildly repulsive."

One trait most fish attractants have is the ability to mask or neutralize scents deemed negative. The favorable mol­ecules in your fish scent will adhere to the unwanted molecules that have been placed on your lures, equating to a positive smell if the molecules are of the right size, or no smell if they're the wrong fit. " Masking agents work in two ways. One way is to dampen offensive odours and tastes by mixing in positive sub­stances. The positive agent confounds the chemosensory system, diluting the offensive nature of the repellent. In the other strategy, the masking agent actually limits physical contact with the offensive agent. Oil- based scents operate in this way. They overlay the molecules of a fish repellent with an im­permeable barrier, thus preventing the repellent from dissolving into the water and reaching a bass's chemoreceptors," wrote Dr. Jones in his book, Knowing Bass – The Scientific Approach to Catch­ing More Fish. To better understand how these mol­ecules work, a quick biology lesson is in order. Bass, like humans for example, have two nostrils slightly above their mouth. Each nostril has a separate hole that water- borne scent travels into and out of. Also believed is that taste and scent receptors can be found within and on