The older a bass becomes, the larger its olfactory lobe and thus its odor detection capability becomes increased. As a fishing biologist Dr. Jones emphasized the importance of the three senses that orientate a bass to its environment. The final attack by a bass, in most circumstances, is based on vision. Smell, or odor, is used to not only to detect potential food, but also the quality of the food. In other words, there are common features as far as smells from minnows, crawfish, and shad and unique scents emitted from each, which can be used for distinction of the species.
Vibration is picked up by the bass and alerts it that something is in the neighborhood.
A benefit of artificial scents, according to Dr. Jones, is that you can reduce the negative factors and increase the positive stimulation by their presence on a lure. Since the greatest impact of odor stimuli to baits is on slow-moving baits I wanted to also get my friend Roy Greer's input. Roy, as you may recall from a Texas Pro article I wrote, is a fishery's biologist by training who left the fisheries management area and began the Weedless Lure Company which is now headquartered at Lake Fork. Roy markets a product called jig Juice as a spray-on additive for lures. He believes in spraying an additive on all three lures.