Neat video. I have caught many of fish after putting sunscreen on my hands. Bluegill, crappie, LMB, and yes catfish also.

Have you considered that its possible that crappie cannot smell the 2 main ingredients in sunscreen?
many chemicals are completely odorless. often other chemicals are added to give a product a pleasant scent. or to warn of hazzards such as natural gas. it has no detectable scent by humans so some very recognizable " stink" is added to it. the main ingredient in sunscreen, titanium dioxide, occurs naturally in nature, so it may not be a scent crappie or any fish find offensive if they can even smell it.
bait manufacturer such as Berkley put alot of research into various fish attractants. One of the main ingredients they use is amino acid compounds.
most fish circulate water thru thier gills and can likely "taste" the water going thru thier gills .
fish eggs and most other eggs have amino acids.
I make my own crappie nibbles with rough fish eggs, like gasper goo or carp, shad oil, and a few other ingredients.
it took me alot of trial and error to find the right binders, amount of water to add, and a way to store them in bulk so they would not dry out. I keep the mixed batch in a mason jar with a sealed lid. when I run low I take a portion out, roll them into nibbles and put them in a small jar. I ve been adding glitter to the nibbles just like berkley does to some, I never understood why, until I saw A crappie in an aquarium chewing on a minnow, and watched the scales of the minnow get blown back out of its mouth and dispersed into the water around it. I think this triggers a genetic feeding response in other fish nearby. when a crappie feeds on a minnow, it doesnt just swallow it. it kind of moves it back and forth in its mouth .
why it does this, and exactly how, I do not know , but it does it.. I observed this many times when I watched the fish feed in an aquarium over a 9 month period.
we all have opinions based on our own personal life experiences,. and from what ive observed, crappie nibbles or dip, spray on fish attractors make a substantial difference in the amount of fish I catch., your results may be different.
In my opinion, the nibbles you can make yourself can be just as good or better than store bought, and a whole lot cheaper.
the second part of the reasoning I use scent attractors, is that they may conceal some of the scent coming of of the hands, that may indeed be a turn off for crappie. whenever u touch something, oil comes out of your fingers. there may be chemicals that humans excrete thru the oils in our bodies , or even things that we touched, such as a gas pump handle, chewing gum, a cigar, candy, some onions we chopped the night before, ect, ect ,ect..
so the possibilities are ENHANCEMENT of some scents , and CONCEALMENT of other scents.

I tried using traditional nibbles and then later bought some of those fireballs last year. I also tried spray but it made such a mess that I stopped -- including stains on my seat covers (which took a couple of months to eventually go away).

I can't say whether or not it helped or not -- so I stopped because I really couldn't justify to myself it was worth the trouble. I will say that the Thump chubbie that I use exclusively (except in Aug/Sep when I have to downsize to a hair jig) have scent built in. Maybe this is the reason I've never noticed a difference -- nibble/scent vs none.

My approach to crappie fishing is targeting aggressive fish and moving on to the next spot until I find aggressive fish. Will scent help me entice a fish to bite that would have otherwise ignored it ? Maybe ... but that is the same argument used for trying different colors and profiles. It's something other people do quite successfully but it's just an approach that I gave up on. I've caught 873 crappie this year all on the same jig with no nibbles or scent added. Could I catch more if I added scent or nibbles -- I guess I'll never know.

I do wash my hands and scrub them with a towel after applying sun screen in the boat for the reason leanin post mentioned -- looks like I can probably stop worrying about that.

Good points leanin!

With regards to masking our scent, do you think they would relate our smell with a threat and thus not bite if they can indeed smell us? They live in the water and we do not so I don't think they would think of our scent as a threat to their lives.

I could argue that they can't smell at all. I mean, we use plastic and feather jigs after all to catch them, neither of which are what they eat. Berkley has done a bunch of research no doubt but I believe that is with other species and not so much crappie.

Do you think Berkley spends more money on researching fishermen or fish

FWIW, when I exclusively fished for largemouth -- I only used Berkley powerbaits. If I wanted to go out with a soft plastic today for largemouth, I would still use power bait. I don't know for sure if they make a difference but (unlike nibbles and sprays) it isn't really any more work to use them -- just a little more cost.

Really good experiment. Good job young man! I'll never worry about getting sun screen on my jig again!!

You just proved that they like the scent of Neutrogena.

The oils dispersing off said baits are clearly visible to Crappie . The oil or " scent " trail is visible as well . Place two jig of same color , shape and size within a cple feet of each other , one with scent ,one without . Catch ratios can be measurable and most of all must be consistent.

I think alot has to do with the mood they are in.. when they are very aggressive and shoot out of a brushpile and nail a jig 4 feet away, it likley doesnt matter.. when they are not in a aggressive feeding mode, and they swim out, and seem to sniff the jig, I think it matters alot. I dont think they are swimming right up to it to see if it is alive or will swim away.. they are checking something out. I dont think they need it right in front of thier face to see it, so I think they are tasting the water around it, and or smelling it.

regarding Berley, they are a world renounded company that usually makes great quality products. I highly doubt they would risk thier excellent reputation just to make a "snake oil" , gimmicky fish attractant to sell knowing it was all a hoax.. the recipe for the fish attractants they use are very closely gaurded trade secrets..
Publishing research studies could compromise these hard won secrets.
Pro Cure is another great fish attractant that is shad oil based.. it is used with confidence around the world.
If attractants help me to catch even just 5 percent more fish, its worth it to me.