Fish Chris,

It's not that the fish develop a taste for PowerBait, it's that whole association thing. If a bass eats a trout that has a big ball of PowerBait stuck inside it's mouth (or externally from a breakoff or even ingested in it's belly), that bass will associate the PowerBait with the trout. I know PowerBait is made to clone the food the hatchery fish are raised on...once again, those trout seem to ooze that PowerBait-ish scent. If you're raised on Purina dog chow, and that's all you eat all your life, if someone eats you, you are gonna have a hint of Purina in your flavor! That being said, I think most hatchery trout have a hint of hatchery food/PowerBait to their flavor. Hence, the association of the PowerBait scent to trout in the bass's mind.

A ball of PowerBait could be trolled, shaped, or otherwise fished to immitate a mini trout or bait fish. Bass hit clown jerkbaits, why not Captain America gui-balls? The scent of the PowerBait makes the bass think, OK this is a small little trout or something like it or associated with it, and then, what the hell, I'll suck it in and be done with it.

Anyway, probably beating this one to death!

Matt