Has anyone tried scenting when casting (not trolling)? Does it work, or just give you stinky fly boxes?

stinky fly boxes. if you want to have scent, fish bait.

Doesn't sound like fly fishing to me.

I agree with D3S. If you want to fish bait, fish bait.

+ 2
Don't do it. It isn't needed anyway.

never tried it, sounds like a mess waiting to happen.

One of the most under utilized tips in the fly fishing. I always scent the head of my fly and up the tippet a few feet, never on the body of the fly, where legal to do so. Just use the appropiate scent for the species being targeted, be it freshwater lakes, rivers or the salt. At the end of the day wash your flys with some lemon joy dish soap and let dry before returning to your fly box.

Ive never found that I need scent to catch fish on flies......ESPECIALLY for silvers and cutties in the salt!!!!! They are usually beyond extremly aggressive and will smash a baitfish the second they see it.

My delema was this: 100 silvers suspended 6' deep in the mouth of the bay , and can't get them to budge. I was thinking of dead-drifting a large scented shrimp pattern through them, but never got the chance this fall anyway! I agree that when commando casting and fast stripping bait patterns, scent isn't important. I'm sure you guys have seen what I'm talking about, so you have to get creative.

drab spiders stripped in from of them... its what i get about 99% of my staging silvers on.