I've had good luck with scented plastic worms; therefore, I've gone with the same company for liquid fish attractants. For baits that have cavities or skirts - something to hold the scent - I use a liquid attractant made for bass. An 8 oz. bottle costs about $3. I don't use spray bottles because they greatly wastes the stuff; plus, it gets all over everything. For hard baits, I use a jelly version of the same attractant. I can't remember the price, but I would guess it's a few dollars. It sticks to hard baits and will last through a dozen of so casts.

    As far as mixing up some super attractant in the kitchen that is guaranteed to catch all the bass in a given lake, I wouldn't bet the house on it. I look for attractants to do a few things. First, leave a faint scent trail in the water for a bass to follow. Second, help keep the lure in the bass' mouth until I can set the hook. Third, cover up offending scents. These include things like soap residues and the warning scent a previously caught fish might have left on my lure. With these things in mind, I think the most important part of a fish attractant is figuring out how to keep it on your bait, not so much what the secret scent is made from. So, get a good commercial scent, like one from the big names in plastics, and then figure out ways to keep it on your lure.