Scents or non-scents? - that is the question.

I found some interesting opinions / facts about using scents for freshwater species. Here is the first one:

First, we'll try to clarify a "myth" about formulas (or attractants.) One thing to keep in mind is that there is no such thing as a "Fish Attractant!" except when it comes to "chumming the water, usually done while salt water fishing."

Fish Attractants do not attract anything except for the angler who buys them off of the self or orders them from their favorite bait and tackle outlet, and a "Fish Formula" is no more than a cover-up for an unwanted taste that had probably contaminated your bait from something you may have had on your hands or what ever the bait was kept in (the old musty smell?)

A fish formula is much like when the deer hunter puts scents on his clothes to "cover-up" his human scent so the deer won't smell him walking through the woods.

Another consideration:

a bass (and many other species of fish) can scent approximately 1/200th of a drop of a substance in 100 gallons of water. Now if their sense of taste and smell are that acute, they can surly taste the gas that rubbed off of your hands and got on the bait you cast into the water or any other foreign scent or residue that may have been on your hands such as sun lotion, ingredients from something you may have ate, a after shave lotion (or perfume hopefully used by female anglers), rust, must, mold, or just about anything you can imagine.

Now from the same author:

I can tell you from experience that the natural scents work the best. I always use a Crawfish formula for plastics and jig & pig combos, Shad Oil (or scent) for actions baits such as spinnerbaits, jerkbaits, crankbaits, and top water baits, and a Garlic scent when things slow down from the Crawfish scented baits. Here's a point you may want to remember... a Crawfish is ALWAYS!, ALWAYS!, the number one food source of a bass, even over baitfish!

If, as he says, attractants don't attract but instead cover unwanted negative odors or tastes, why the importance of specific scents? Like color-matching opinions, this scent opinion seems to be shot full of holes.

I can buy the, they hold on longer vs spit it out because of a negative taste far more than they hold on longer because it tastes good or natural . Salt, anise and garlic are not natural, but many do consider them just as effective (for personal and varied opinions).

Can it be conclusively stated that MegaStike grease works any better than a host of other oils or water soluble formulas? Water soluble formulas would need to be applied to a lure on every cast; oil and grease would disperse not at all! Maybe a solution to the solution we cast our baits into would be using both! 😠

(Not to advocate man-made scents or sound hypocritical, I firmly believe that musty odors and rust are the most negative scents that repel bass along with a strong after shave.)