I understand why the crawfish or shad scents could be good, but why would garlic or coffee be good?

Probably by covering up YOUR scent (body, gasoline, soap, etc.)on the baits you use.

Bass are partial to Italian food and coffee scent works well early in the morning!

I figured this was the only reasonable answer...

This is what is have always thought! I love to use the garlic Carolina lunker sauce and you can smell that stuff for a mile. I always joke that I'm fishin for the Italian bass- they get bigger
Now I heard on here yesterday that Carolina lunker sauce is out of bidness . Guess I'll have to stretch out my last bottle as long as I can

+1 that's it

Please don't get upset here because I keep chiming in on the scent issues. I am just repeating what my Biochemist has told me about some to the test he has done in the past.

- Fish tank 50 ft. long with 12 bass in it.
- He lowers a 30 ft. long rack into the tank with what he calls 12 chum bags attached to drop lines spread evenly appart.
- One bag contains Garlic Extract (100% Pure Oil) for sure because it is so popular among fisherman he said.
- One bag contains Minnow Extract
- One bag contains Night Crawler Extract
- Most of the others are also critters that bass eat.
- Some were filled with cotton saturated in some of the other attractants that are non food sources like garlic. Sorry, he would not tell me what they were. For some reason this a top secret facility and some things he will not tell me. I have ask for video research and that is out of the question. He says nothing is recorded.
- One bag contained cotton that he had handled, rugged his face with it and etc.

He did tell me the results on this test.
- The Minnow and Night Crawler received 11 hits in 30 seconds before any of the bass went to the other chum bags to check them out.
- Not one hit on the garlic at all. They were all around it and did not shy away form it but no strikes on the bag.
- He says that all species of fish go to the most natural scents to them first. They get to them faster to check it out when injected into to the tank through a tiny port.
- His human scent bag was avoided like the plague. He said the bass were shying away from it like a dog does a stranger that comes in the house.
- Bass can smell anything that hits the water from 50 ft. away almost immediately and begin to make the move toward the scent.

I'm on my last tube of their Crawlic , strong stuff.

Perhaps in a body of water with current. I can't imagine their senses can pick up a scent that's not moving. I'm no biologist but common sense would seem to prevail here.

Don't know. I can't answer. He just tells me all species of fresh water have an incredible sense of smell. The salt water fish even much greater.

Please read the thread I started. Lots of good info

Right after the spawn, Menthol scent seems to work the best

Great example. Most saltwater guys will tell you they are most successful with a moving tide / current. SLack tides are less productive for fishing.

I can tell you this - garlic tastes sweet to almost all animals aside from us. You can catch bass with a clove of garlic on a hook, honest. Same with deer, crush some up and throw it around your feeder and watch, they'll go straight to the garlic and ignore the corn until the garlic is gone. They'll even ignore apples for garlic. It's also VERY pervasive, which I think is another reason it works so well as an attractant, it floods their senses and from a good distance too.

Plus it is a fantastic cover scent for human stink, same with coffee. I've read about drug runners hiding pot in coffee because it can OCCASIONALLY fool even a drug dogs senses. It definitely works to cover your scent.